


Kingdom Hearts: The Etherium

by JCMorrigan



Category: Kingdom Hearts, Treasure Planet (2002)
Genre: Hypothetical KHIII, Inspired by GAvillain, Multi, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-12
Updated: 2017-10-11
Packaged: 2019-01-16 06:53:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 34,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12337713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JCMorrigan/pseuds/JCMorrigan
Summary: A hypothetical of if Treasure Planet were a world in Kingdom Hearts III. Written before Kingdom Hearts III exists, and will be canon divergent as of Dream Drop Distance. Inspired by GAvillain and full of things he likes, including one thing at the end that might just not be Disney enough to actually make it into KHIII. Pairings are SoRiku, Amelia/Doppler, and alluded-to Belle/Beast.





	1. Act I

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GAvillain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GAvillain/gifts).



Already, it had been a long and hard fight against not only Xehanort’s insidious plot to collect his Thirteen Darknesses, but against Maleficent as well, her desire to penetrate every world’s defenses and fill it with Darkness a neverending thirst. But despite the looming Darkness, the forces of the Lights held strong, as fast in their friendships as ever.

            By this time, Sora had been to many different worlds, fighting alongside many new partners in order to combat the forces of evil. Each world so far had contained an item at its heart that, with the help of one Keyblade or another, unlocked a path to still more worlds in the outer reaches of what the more knowledgeable – Yen Sid, Mickey, Merlin – had identified as the known cosmos. As Sora and his friends explored more of these worlds, Xehanort and Maleficent only became more aggressive about beating him to the punch. After a particularly harrowing escapade in Twilight Barking London (one where Maleficent had dispatched one of her very own allies, the sorceress queen of the Dwarf Woodlands, to assist the local crime boss of Hell Hall), a regrouping was in order. Maleficent had made it clear that she was going to strike for the Seven Princesses of Heart next, and communications had come in from the True Organization XIII that they were largely after the same goal in order to draw out the Seven Lights.

            Sora had needed to shop for supplies in town in Radiant Garden anyway. One could only adventure for so long before one ran low on the regenerative Hi-Potions and Ethers that kept one fueled. After picking up the necessary items to fill inventory, as well as a bar of Scrooge McDuck’s famed sea salt ice cream and an upgraded mage’s staff for Donald, Sora proceeded to the castle at the center of the metropolis.

            Cid Highwind had proposed the meeting, and the summons had traveled through the grapevine, with Chip and Dale patching through to the necessary gummi ships. Not everyone was free to attend, but the library of the castle – for Merlin’s house was by now far too small to host the meetings called – was filled with quite the roster. There was the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee: Cid, Aerith Gainsborough, Yuffie Kisaragi, Leon (formerly known as Squall Leonhart), Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockhart, Merlin, and the four newest inductees: Yuna, Rikku, Paine, and Stitch. There were the Seven Princesses of Heart, who were no stranger to this castle, though now it was not a prison for them, but instead a refuge: Aurora, Cinderella, Snow White, Jasmine, Alice, Belle, and Kairi. There was the king of Disney Castle, Mickey Mouse, and the two most well-traveled warriors of his court: Donald Duck and Goofy. And finally, there were Sora and Riku.

            After some talk, a conclusion was reached: “There ain’t nowhere we can hide all seven princesses that Maleficent and Xehanort won’t find some way to find ‘em,” Cid summed up. “Xehanort might even know what we’re gonna do anyway, with his…however that fuckin’ time travel bullshit of his works. But what we can do is split ‘em up and put ‘em with teams of fighters. They say there’s safety in numbers.”

            “I agree with Cid,” Leon said with a nod. He turned to where six of the seven were lined up against a bookshelf (Kairi stood with Sora and Riku instead). “For your safety, you can’t stay together. And you can’t stay here, either. This is the first place they’ll come looking for any of you.”

            “Now, I wouldn’t say it’s THAT unsafe!” Merlin interjected. “You’re forgetting about my magic! Just like you do EVERY time.” This last remark was accompanied by a knowing glance at Cid.

            “Oh, will you come off it?” Cid groaned. “Just ‘cause I trust your magic ‘bout as far as I can throw that Pete fella don’t mean I’m leavin’ you out on purpose!”

            “Well,” Merlin replied, “that is at least reassuri – wh – WHAT do you mean you don’t trust my magic?”

            Sora, Riku, and Kairi exchanged glances. They were all trying quite hard not to smile. Merlin and Cid’s spats were far too amusing, and one of their guilty pleasures to watch.

            “I just mean that one day, ‘cause of you, one of us is gonna get turned into some kinda half-fish, half-elephant mutant one day and never get changed back!” Cid argued.

            “Oh, such talk from a man who relies on materia for so much as a cookfire for breakfast!” Merlin snapped.

            “Materia ain’t the same THING!” Cid argued. “And that was ONE TIME when the heating went out! I wouldn’t just go around wastin’ it otherwise! I wasn’t even gonna use it then, but Yuffie wouldn’t stop bustin’ my ass about chocolate chip waffles!”

            “I REGRET NOTHING!” Yuffie interjected.

            At about this time, Belle saw fit to step forward, hands up. “You don’t have to fight!” she insisted. “We’ve ALL seen enough of Merlin’s magic to know that we can trust it, but it’s also not the only way!” She put her hands on her hips. “And I’m surprised the both of you don’t know that by now.”

            “If they’re gonna fight all the time,” Sora whispered to Riku, “I think they should just get married already.”

            Riku had to clap his hand over his mouth to stifle a large chortle.

            “And if you’re going to waste all our time fighting,” Belle went on, “then we can have this meeting in another part of the castle, WITHOUT the two of you!”

            That got both Cid and Merlin to shut up.

            “What were you going to say about using magic to protect us?” Belle asked Merlin.

            “If I were to transform one of you into a bird – “ Merlin began.

            “See what I mean about the transformations?” Cid groaned. He was immediately silenced by a poisonous glare from Belle.

            “Go on,” Belle encouraged Merlin.

            “Then you would be indistinguishable from thousands of birds in the sky, and be able to hide anywhere in the world!” Merlin concluded.

            “Being a bird does sound like so much fun!” Snow White broke in. “Could I try? I do so love birds!”

            “Why, of course!” Merlin agreed. “It seems like a fitting solution! As for the rest of you, we shall need to forge teams to protect you at once!”

            Jasmine folded her arms. “Because you think I can’t protect myself?”

            “It’s not that at all,” Aerith reassured her. “These are dangerous times. None of us is safe on our own. Not even the most powerful warriors.”

            “Or else I’d have left a long time ago!” Merlin huffed.

            “Come on!” Sora cajoled. “You know you love us!”

            Merlin wasn’t about to admit out loud that Sora was right.

            “I’ll go with Sora and Riku!” Kairi volunteered.

            “If there’s two people you’re NOT goin’ with, it’s them!” Cid snapped at her. “Everybody and their brother’s expectin’ to find you with ‘em!”

            “But you’re going to put somebody with them!” Kairi pointed out. “What’s the difference if it’s me?”

            “The difference is that you’re not just a Princess of Heart,” Leon stated. “You’re also a Light, and so are they. And if the King travels with them like the last mission, that’s four Lights in one place.”

            “I was kinda hopin’ to go with ‘em again,” Mickey suggested. “If anyone takes the new outer world that was unlocked on the last mission, it should be me, Sora, and Riku. That’s the world that’s gonna be the most dangerous, so we’re gonna need a Master, like Riku! There’s almost nothing Sora can’t do, and, well, not to brag, but I am one of the best Keybearers there is!”

            “No one’s arguing with that,” Riku said with a smile.

            “I understand,” Kairi said at last. She was a little dismayed. Even though this time around, she’d been able to spend a lot more time with Sora and Riku, the memory of when they’d all been ripped apart on prior adventures still stung. She wasn’t looking forward to worrying whether they’d both come home safe. When she’d heard that they’d entered a routine Mark of Mastery exam to end up with Sora nearly hollowed out and turned into a puppet of Xehanort, she’d been flabbergasted. And furthermore, being around either of them always gave her the feeling that she was with a fun older brother: a sense of comfort and familiarity. The person who she could call closest to a brother by blood and law wasn’t so approachable.

            Sora clapped a hand on Kairi’s shoulder. “It’ll be okay,” he told her. “We’ll see you again real soon!”

            “Just stay safe, okay?” Riku took advantage of his height to ruffle Kairi’s hair a little, making her smile in the process.

            “I will,” Kairi promised.

            “Y’know what?” Goofy proposed. “We should go with her!”

            “Yeah!” Donald agreed. “We’ll keep her safe! Though in Goofy’s case, it might be the other way around.”

            Kairi crossed the room to stand next to Donald and Goofy. “I’m ready whenever you are!” she laughed.

            “Wonder where we should go,” Goofy mused. “Oh, I know! What if we go to Aurora’s home world? That oughta be safe!”

            “THAT’S ALSO MALEFICENT’S HOME WORLD, YA BIG PALOOKA!” Donald reminded him angrily.

            Now that Sora and Riku were alone together on their side of the library, they gave each other a smile, knowing they’d be partners on their mission to the mysterious world Sora had unlocked via Roger’s piano in Twilight Barking London. With no one in between them, their eyes locked directly on one another for a moment, electric blue on electric blue. Feeling something akin to a jolt run through his stomach, Riku quickly looked away, embarrassed. Sora, on the other hand, was ever so slightly disappointed when the connection was broken; he liked looking into Riku’s eyes. But he wasn’t about to complain.

            As she watched from afar, this interaction wasn’t lost on Kairi. She’d suspected that feelings might be brewing between the two for a while now, and she was hoping she was right. In her mind, they would make the cutest couple she could imagine.

            “Well, fellas!” Mickey approached Sora and Riku. “Looks like it’s the three of us heading out to the mystery world!”

            “And there’s nothing we can’t do!” Sora emphasized.

            “Now, don’t go gallivantin’ off just yet!” Cid called over to the trio. “You’re bodyguardin’ one of the ladies, whether you like it or not! If you think you’re just gonna leave these defenseless gals behind…”

            “SEXIST!” Yuffie interrupted.

            “You gonna let me finish a sentence?” Cid asked her.

            “Maybe,” Yuffie replied, rocking on her heels; her defiance was earning her a lot of respect among Yuna and Rikku.

            “If we can pick who we go with,” Sora spoke up, “then I wanna go with Belle!”

            “Me?” Belle was utterly stunned. “On a dangerous mission? Oh, I don’t know if I’m right for it. You’d probably be better off with Jasmine.”

            “Come on, Belle!” Sora urged. “You’ve helped us out with a lot of dangerous stuff! Remember when you punched Xaldin in the gut?”

            “I grew up with Dilan,” Kairi reminded her. “Getting away from him isn’t easy! I can’t tell you how many times he literally carried me back home after finding out I ran to the ice cream shop without permission!”

            “I…I don’t know,” Belle reiterated, looking back toward the other princesses.

            Jasmine gave her a nod. “I know you don’t think you’re very strong, but there’s more than one way to BE strong. And I know you have a very strong heart.”

            “When we had to protect this world’s Keyhole from Ansem,” Cinderella reminded her, “you were the one who organized us, and you were able to contribute more light than any of us.”

            “And if it’s worth anything,” Alice pointed out, “you convinced me to start reading books without many pictures, and I’ve never regretted it.”

            “What does that have to do with anything?” Paine grunted.

            “There’s an awful lot of light in you, Missy!” Merlin emphasized.

            Looking around the room, Belle found herself faced with a crowd that all believed she would fare well with Sora, Riku, and Mickey on their assignment. “All right,” she relented. “I’ll go with them.”

            “NOW you can head out while we figure out where to send everybody else,” Cid told the two boys and the royal mouse.

            “Good luck!” Mickey told Donald, Goofy, and Kairi; he, Sora, and Riku exchanged waves goodbye with the trio before heading for the door.

            Cinderella stepped forward to give Belle a brief embrace goodbye. “I believe in you,” she told her fellow princess.

            “Thank you,” Belle said gratefully. “I’m not so sure I believe in me. But I believe in all of you. Oh, and if anyone could deliver a message to Adam telling him where I am – “

            “We’ll be certain to!” Merlin promised.

            “Goodbye!” Belle called out before rushing to meet Sora, Riku, and Mickey at the door. Without further ado, the quartet set out, and the library door creaked shut behind them.

            “Now, to figure out the rest,” Leon transitioned.

            “We’re gonna have to call in a few favors,” Cid decided. “Get me Axel on the line and – “

            “Isn’t his name Lea?” Aerith corrected.

            “What the fuck ever!” Cid cried in exasperation.

 

* * *

 

 

            Sora settled down in the pilot’s seat of the gummi ship, flipping the control panel screen on so that the map of the worlds visited so far was visible. Mickey and Riku crowded in to peer around him at the dashboard while Belle settled herself in one of the rear seats of the passenger bay, cracking open a new book to read on the ride.

            The new world was symbolized by an unmarked gray sphere. Once it had been visited, Chip and Dale would be able to log its name, defining characteristics, and danger level. Cid’s Warp-G would also be able to home in on the coordinates once they’d been reached physically. “Looks like that’s where we’re going,” Sora reiterated. “Everybody ready?”

            “I say bring it on,” Riku replied happily.

            “Let’s go!” Mickey agreed enthusiastically.

            Belle, already absorbed in her book, gave a nod and an “Mm-hmm.”

            “Then let’s BLAST OFF!” Sora threw the ship into gear, and off they went.

            The trip to the new world was fraught with obstacles, as was to be expected. Interspace was filled with debris of all sorts, and no one ever was sure where the immense stone rings or the cubes of multicolored gummi material came from. Perhaps they were just the dust of the multiverse. Only a few times did the travelers have trouble with Heartless ships; Sora had finally become proficient in both driving the ship and maneuvering its guns, and was quickly able to eradicate the oncoming threats. There were a few near misses, and Sora was chewed out by all three of his passengers after nearly wrecking the ship against the side of a gigantic stone wall, but the trip was managed safely, and the first landmark of the new world came into view.

            First, the gummi ship passed out of interspace and into an expanse of stars, as though entering Deep Space. This was obviously a world that spanned several planets. Then the first celestial body appeared. At a distance, it looked like a crescent moon, with most of its mass in shadow. However, as the ship neared and the view through the front window became clearer, it was visible that it was a structure that had been built in the shape of an actual crescent. There was no shadowy mass to fill in the rest; that space was instead open, and a myriad of spacecraft was seen passing through it. Settled in the crescent was a sprawling city that practically gleamed from a distance.

            The gummi ship had reached the Etherium.

 

* * *

             Sora, Riku, Mickey, and Belle found a lot to take in visually as they strolled the streets of the port city of Crescentia. The streets were bustling with pedestrian activity. Many were human, and some, akin to Mickey, were anthropomorphic animals, but the vast majority were beings that appeared completely unfamiliar, with skin in every shade, any number of eyeballs, appendages in places that humanoids usually did not have appendages, and bodies shaped like almost anything you could imagine and a few you couldn’t. None of the travelers were particularly fazed by this. Sora, Riku, and Mickey had seen enough beings unlike them that they were very hard to surprise, and while Belle hadn’t the interdimensional repertoire they did, she was adept at looking past visages, utterly unable to judge anyone or anything until she’d gotten a handle on their actions and words.

            The populace wasn’t the only remarkable thing about the new territory. The spacecraft that Sora, Riku, and Mickey had seen entering the harbor space from afar wasn’t shaped like the gummi ships, nor like any other spaceship they’d ever seen; Stitch wouldn’t have been able to call the sight familiar. Instead, the spaceships all resembled galleons and brigantines, such as one might find traversing the seas around Port Royal or circling the Neverland coast. The only things that distinguished them from any water vessel were their sails – they shimmered with energy that interacted with the void of space to help the rockets propel the ships forward – and the fact that they were indeed flying. As Sora noticed this, he in particular also took note that the architecture of Crescentia and the clothing of its people were also similar to that he’d seen in Port Royal, with perhaps a touch of Traverse Town.

            “It’s like Port Royal,” he thought out loud. “Except more…outer-space-y.”

            “It’s wonderful!” Belle cried. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before, not even in books!”

            “You’ve never read any science fiction about spaceships?” Riku said in disbelief.

            Belle shook her head.

            “Right,” Riku said, realizing that in Belle’s world, they probably didn’t publish books about such things, as they probably didn’t know spaceships could even exist. “Remind me that when all this is done, I have some books to lend you.”

            “Hey, why DON’T we all get together and trade books when this is over?” Sora suggested. “With all of us coming from such different worlds, we can all lend each other stuff that we never would have seen otherwise!”

            “It’s a great idea,” Mickey affirmed, “but right now, we need to stay focused. We’ve gotta keep an eye out for anything special happening on this world that might get Maleficent’s attention!”

            “Or Xehanort’s,” Riku added.

            “Right!” Mickey confirmed.

            “Hmmm…” Sora peered through the streets and alleys. The unique shape of Crescentia made it rather easy to see things that were happening in the distance and over the skyline, including a dock where a ship that seemed larger than any other was loading up. “That ship looks kinda important.”

            “Are you saying that because you mean it,” Riku teased, “or because you just wanna get on something that looks like another pirate ship?”

            “That’s for me to know and you guys to find out!” Sora laughed.

            “Well, it is a pretty big ship,” Mickey pointed out. “It might be carrying some real valuable cargo…or some real important passengers! I say we check it out!”

            The four redirected their footsteps to make their way down to the dock.

 

* * *

 

            The RLS Legacy hovered grandly in the light blue sky, bearing three masts that hinted at a plethora of sails. A gangplank led up to its deck, and as soon as Sora was in sight of it, he charged directly to it in order to run onboard as quickly as possible.

            “Hey!” Riku called after him. “Wait up!” He charged right after Sora, eventually overtaking him in speed.

            “Hold on, fellas!” Mickey yelled as he and Belle rushed to catch up.

            Riku skidded onto the deck a split second before Sora could make it. “Still can’t keep up with me?” he joked.

            “Aw, man…” Sora sighed. “Now it’s 106 to 72.” To show he wasn’t really sore, he gave Riku a playful shove on the forearm.

            Mickey and Belle arrived soon after. “This really is somethin’!” Mickey remarked. Belle was at a loss for words as she turned a slow 360 on deck in order to take in all the sights.

            While Belle was careful not to run into anyone while she looked around, another aboard the ship was not so cautious. Riku felt someone, someone who was walking backward while staring about in awe, walk right into him. “Hey!” Riku cried automatically.

            “Whoa, man!” the person who’d run into Riku cried, spinning around and putting up both hands. “I’m sorry!” He was human, and furthermore, he looked to be about Sora and Riku’s age, dressed in a rather nondescript baggy tee and pants with thick boots. His chestnut hair was pulled into a thin ponytail at the back of his head.

            “It’s fine,” Riku replied to assuage the young man’s worry.

            Trundling up the gangplank behind this youth was perhaps the strangest figure seen all day if only because of what he was wearing: a bulky, rounded suit of pale armor that seemed haphazardly cobbled together. It wasn’t apparent whether the armor was supposed to be for combat or deep-sea diving, but it didn’t look like it would be up to withstand either. The shape of the person beneath it was hard to make out due to the mass of metal, but his structure seemed fairly humanoid, and through the visor of the bright golden helmet, the travelers could see his face: somewhat doglike, a shade of deep tan bordered with dark brown hair, floppy-eared, large-nosed, and bespectacled. “Jim!” he called out, casting his gaze around the deck. “Oh, Jim – oh, there you are!” He clanked his way over to the young man who’d run into Riku. “Ah, hello!” he greeted Riku, looking over Sora, Mickey, and Belle as well. “Honorable crew members of the RLS Legacy, I take it?”

            “Uhhhh…no?” Sora supplied.

            “But we might be passengers!” Mickey added. “We were kinda hopin’ to see what this ship was all about.”

            “Ah, yes!” the armored man replied. “The Legacy is on quite an important voyage, you see! We have the highly sensitive task of – “

            “Dr. Doppler,” Jim hissed, shooting a warning glare in the other man’s direction.

            “Right!” Doppler corrected himself. “The task is so sensitive, we can’t discuss it with anyone but the captain!”

            Sora tapped Riku on the shoulder, pulling him aside as Mickey and Belle stayed with Jim and Doppler. “Riku,” Sora whispered, “if the ship has some kind of important mission, it might have something to do with Maleficent or Xehanort. And if it doesn’t, it might lead us to whatever’s in this world that opens up the path to the next one.”

            “What if it’s not related?” Riku countered. “I don’t want to end up on a voyage across a world this big if it isn’t for the right thing.”

            “But if the world IS so big, how will we know what we’re looking for unless we just…try something?”  
            Riku had to admit Sora had a point. “All right. Let’s see if we can find this captain and ask to stay on board.”

            They turned back to catch the midst of an explanation from Doppler: “It’s actually all-purpose armor, you see. Though I’m still figuring out exactly what purposes it has. Let’s just say that it was the result of a lapse in judgment and a VERY persuasive saleswoman. Now, if you’ll excuse us, Jim and I have to meet with the captain.”

            “We were wondering if we could meet with the captain too,” Sora brought up. “Since we want to take the ship. Maybe we can find him together!”

            “Or her,” Belle offered, though she was temporarily ignored.

            “Okay,” Jim agreed. He put out his right hand. “I’m Jim. Jim Hawkins.”

            “Nice to meetcha!” Sora grabbed and shook Jim’s hand enthusiastically. “I’m Sora!”

            When Sora let go of Jim’s hand, Riku took it next, giving it a brief pump. “I’m Riku.”

            “Mickey Mouse!” Mickey introduced while shaking Jim’s hand even harder than Sora had.

            Belle did not handshake, but instead curtsied politely. “My name is Belle.”

            “And I am Dr. Delbert Doppler,” Doppler said formally. He attempted to take a bow while continuing: “You may have heard of my work in the field of – “ Bowing in the clunky armor proved to be harder than he thought, and Doppler ended up toppling right to the deck with an “Oh, DRAT!” It took both Jim and Belle to haul him back up to his feet.

            “You might wanna think about some different armor for the rest of the trip,” Riku suggested.

            “Trust me,” Doppler practically growled, “I’ve already thought about it no less than seventeen times since arriving in Crescentia.”

            The group of four was now a group of six, and they moved across the deck until they found a large man whose skin appeared to be made of stone; he was clothed in a bright red jacket and a black tricorner hat. Assuming him to be the captain, Doppler strode ahead, calling out, “Good morning, captain! Everything shipshape?”

            “Shipshape it is,” the stone man said with a smirk, “but I’m not the captain.” He gestured upward to the mast. “The captain’s aloft.”

            Darting from mast to mast and swinging from rope to rope, an agile and slender woman, mostly humanoid but for her catlike face and dressed in a uniform capped by a jacket of blue, made her way swiftly down from the crow’s nest until she completed a seemingly death-defying leap down onto the deck, where she landed on her feet perfectly.

            Jim, Sora, Riku, and Belle stared in awe at her acrobatics; the former three suddenly regretted brushing off the latter’s suggestion that the captain could be female. Doppler, too, was awestruck, but for a different reason. The captain just so happened to be the most attractive living being he’d ever seen in his life.

            It was Mickey, however, who had the most surprising reaction of all. He slowly walked toward the captain as she approached the stone man.

            “Mr. Arrow,” she began, “I’ve checked this miserable ship from – “

            “Amelia?” Mickey interrupted, still not quite able to believe he was looking at who he thought he was looking at.

            “Mr. Mouse!” Amelia was taken aback. “Well, this is quite the surprise. It’s been what now? Ten years? I suppose this must come as a bit of a shock to you, seeing me as a captain and all.”

            “Actually, I had a feeling you were going places when I found you!” Mickey remarked.

            “Wait!” Sora cried. “You two KNOW each other?”

            “In a manner of speaking,” Amelia explained. “Mr. Mouse quite literally fell onto the deck of a ship I crewed in my younger years. To this day, not quite sure how he did it. Claimed to have some sort of star that took him wherever he didn’t want to go at exactly the moment he didn’t want to go there. Really, it looked like an ordinary crystal to me, but there are all sorts in the Etherium. It’s rather embarrassing, really, looking back on it. I was just a deckhand, and he crashed right into my bucket of soap and water! To think of it: a mere DECKHAND! I’ll tell you, Mr. Mouse, I’ve seen and commanded my way through some of the toughest wars the Etherium has seen!”

            “I don’t doubt it one bit!” Mickey cried. He turned back to Sora, Riku, and Belle. “Back when I was training under Master Yen Sid, I stole a star shard from him that took me all sorts of places with no warning. It landed me right on a ship in the middle of space here! I didn’t know where I was or what this place was called! But Amelia helped set me up on the ship she worked on so that I had food and a place to sleep for the night. She was a big dreamer back then, and really good about protocol!”

            “As opposed to you,” Amelia recalled. “You turned the entire ship into a madhouse.”

            “That’s our Mickey!” Sora remarked, casually putting both hands behind his head.

            “I’ll have you know I won’t tolerate such behavior aboard the Legacy,” Amelia told him.

            “I promise to behave!” Mickey told her. “After all, I’m a king now! I’ve got a reputation to keep up!”

            “A king, are you?” Amelia didn’t quite believe it.

            “It’s a long story,” Mickey told her.

            “And these…friends of yours?” Amelia looked over the group.

            “Three of ‘em are with me,” Mickey explained. “These are my friends Sora, Riku, and Belle!”

            “Nice to meetcha, Amelia!” Sora stated as Riku nodded politely and Belle curtsied once more.

            “We were wonderin’ if we could hitch a ride on the Legacy for a while,” Mickey informed Amelia.

            “Were you now?” Amelia responded. “I suppose I can hardly say no to an old friend, but you do realize where we’re headed, do you not?”

            “Well…um…” Mickey scratched his head. “Gosh. I have no idea.”

            “Then what exactly makes you think you have business here?” Amelia asked him sternly. “The Legacy is bound for quite the destination, Mr. Mouse. I’m not about to allow any uninvited guests onboard unless they prove crucial to the voyage, and if you should prove untrustworthy, you’ll find yourselves locked in the brig faster than you can say ‘starboard bow.’ We’ve got enough to worry about between our mission, the distance we’re going, rationing our supplies, some already rather dubious crew members – “ She glanced over her shoulder at one such crew member; a man with a spiderlike body and crablike claws, red and black, was rolling several barrels across the deck. “ – And the Heartless infestations becoming more frequent by the day – “

            “Heartless?” Sora interrupted. “We’re experts at defeating Heartless! Take a look!” He held out his hand, and in a bright flash, the Keyblade appeared in it.

            “My, my…” Amelia examined the weapon. “Quite an unusual sword, to say the least.”

            “And it’s part of a matching set,” Mickey pointed out as he and Riku brought up their own Keyblades. “These babies are pretty much the only things guaranteed to make a permanent mark on a Heartless!”

            “Interesting,” Amelia mused. “The guns and rapiers only do so much against them. All right. I’ll sign you on for guard duty against the Heartless. I’ll be interested to see what your swords have that ours lack.” She eyed Belle. “I suppose you have one of those as well?”

            Belle shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t.”

            “Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter in the long run,” Amelia remarked. “You come with the Heartless extermination package, so you’re welcome aboard my ship! Now…” She looked to Doppler and Jim. “Who are you?”

            “Jim and Dr. Doppler were looking for you too,” Sora explained. “They had a question for you, I think.”

            “Is that so?” Amelia approached Doppler. “And you would be Dr. Doppler, I presume?” She knocked playfully on his helmet. “Hellooooo in there!”

            “Why, I never – “ Doppler grunted.

            “You know,” Amelia remarked, looking to a fixture on the front of Doppler’s armor, “this really works much better when it’s turned right side up – “ She grabbed and righted the device. “ – And plugged in.” Spinning Doppler around, she jammed the device’s cord into the rear of his suit.

            Spinning back to face Amelia, Doppler insisted, “I will be in charge of my own plugging, thank you very much!”

            “And Jim…as in Jim Hawkins?” Amelia continued.

            “Yeah,” Jim confirmed.

            “He’s the one who found the – “ Doppler began. He was immediately shut up when Amelia clamped her fingers over his mouth.

            “NOT. HERE,” she hissed, once again making Sora, Riku, Mickey, and Belle extremely curious about the nature of the Legacy’s mission. “I will speak to the both of you in my stateroom. As for the newly hired Heartless extermination squad…” She turned back to the four travelers. “You can find free cabins belowdecks, near the stern. You might have to haggle with some of the crew over who gets which. I shall check in with you later.” She whirled on a foot before beginning a stride across the deck. “Mr. Arrow.”

            “Yes, Captain!” Arrow followed Amelia obediently, as did Jim and a disgruntled Doppler.

            “Well, you heard her,” Sora pointed out. “Looks like we’re in charge of finding our own rooms.”

            “Then we should probably go stake a claim,” Riku suggested, already moving; Sora, Mickey, and Belle followed.

            “Let’s explore the ship after we pick out our rooms!” Sora decided. “Who knows? Maybe we’ll find a library!” He looked to Belle.

            “Aboard a ship?” Belle mused. “I doubt it…but this is an unusual ship.”

 

* * *

 

            After finding and settling into four spare cabins, Sora, Riku, Mickey, and Belle had a look around. The Legacy was sizeable, and it took them a while to peruse it in its entirety. Though there was no true library, there was a room stocked with three bookshelves for down time reading, and that was enough for Belle. After some time, the quartet passed an open door, beyond which Amelia was seated at a desk and writing furiously on parchment.

            “This must be Amelia’s stateroom,” Sora whispered.

            “I guess she’s done talking to Jim and Doppler,” Riku added.

            “We shouldn’t bother her,” Mickey advised. “She looks pretty busy.”

            The four moved on, and suddenly, they were engulfed in a scent that made all four mouths water. It was the aroma of a freshly cooked stew.

            “What IS that?” Sora wondered out loud.

            “It smells delicious!” Belle cried. “We must be close to a kitchen.”

            “You think if we drop in and ask politely, they’ll let us have some of the stew?” Sora asked.

            “No harm in askin’!” Mickey decided.

            At that moment, Arrow and Doppler came up onto the deck from the direction of the source of the smell. “We’re about to launch,” Arrow announced.

            “And I’m going to watch it!” Doppler said excitedly. “I’ve never been aboard a ship like this, you know. Care to accompany me?”

            “I’d love to!” Belle cried. “This is just the start of a great adventure!” She turned to Sora, Riku, and Mickey. Already, she could tell that the three of them had other thoughts.

            “Sorry,” Sora told her, “but now, I’m just too hungry.”

            “I can’t remember the last time I ate anything,” Riku pointed out. He knew he’d had a good meal when he was in Radiant Garden, but that was already hours behind him.

            Mickey didn’t have to say a word. His stomach growled audibly.

            “Well, suit yourselves,” Doppler told them. “But you’ll be missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime experience!”

            “Where’s Jim?” Sora asked.

            “Oh,” Doppler replied somberly. “He’s, er…missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime experience. He’s been assigned to kitchen duty alongside the cook. Captain’s orders. And I don’t envy him. The cook is excellent at his job, but at the same time, he’s rather…” Doppler searched for the right word. “Eccentric?”

            “So long as he makes good food,” Sora decided. “Well, we can check in with Jim when we get there. Thanks for the tip!” He descended the stairway up which Doppler had come, and Riku and Mickey followed close behind.

            “Shall we?” Doppler asked Belle.

            “Yes!” Belle led him right to the edge of the ship so as to get the best view of the launch.

            As Riku entered the kitchen, he realized something was wrong. To his nose alone, the delectable aroma of the stew had been joined by something else: a stench, and a familiar one at that. It was the sort of stink that only came from a heart steeped in Darkness. Riku wasn’t sure what to make of that. He knew quite well that he was filled with Darkness himself. However, the other times he’d smelled it on someone, the situation had usually been dangerous. He made sure to be on his guard.

            There were only two people in the small, dimly lit kitchen: Jim and a tall, heavyset man who seemed to be half machine: a cyborg. The cook had one arm that was completely mechanical as well as a matching leg. One eye was replaced with a laser scanner set in a metal bulb, and even parts of his head were filled in with gears, making Sora wonder about the condition of his brain. The cook and Jim seemed to have been in the midst of an awkward silence; Sora and Mickey weren’t able to smell the Darkness in the room (though Riku knew exactly where it was coming from, given that there were only two people present and he hadn’t smelled it on Jim earlier), but they could feel that there was tension in the air.

            “Ah!” the cook said at last, throwing on a big smile that Sora and Mickey found comforting but Riku found unsettling. “More guests, I see? I’m guessin’ ye came down here for a bit o’ the stew!” He ladled out three bowls of a thick green substance. “Old family recipe, you know!”

            Jim waited to see if the cook would make the same stupid joke about the old family literally being in the stew that he’d tried on Doppler earlier, but instead, he went with “And ye’d best make it last, because it’s the only thing I’m givin’ ye to eat for the entire voyage!”

            Upon seeing the horrified look on Sora’s face, the cook burst into laughter. “I’m only jokin’! Ye really thought I’d starve ye out?” He put a bowl and spoon in Sora’s hands. “Go on now!”

            Sora dug into the stew eagerly. “It’s DELICIOUS!” he cried.

            The cook passed bowls to Mickey and Riku. Mickey tucked into his dish as well, but Riku had lost his appetite. “The name’s John Silver,” the cook introduced with a grand bow. “And who might ye be?”

            “I’m Sora,” Sora said with a full mouth. “That’s Mickey and Riku. We’re the ship’s Heartless extermination squad!”

            “Goodness knows we been needin’ one of those,” Silver commented. “The accursed things just don’t know when to stay away, an’ even this old arm hasn’t been keepin’ ‘em back!”

            “I bet,” Riku said sourly.

            “This here’s Jimbo,” Silver went on. “Not a talkative one, an’ probably not a good cook either, but I’ll have ‘im whipped into shape soon enough. Not literally. After all, this arm’s fitted with a hundred different implements, but none of ‘em’s a whip!” He burst into laughter at his own joke.

            Sora laughed along with him. This made Riku all the more uneasy. He wanted badly to pull Sora aside and warn him that the man he was getting along so well with reeked of Darkness, but he held off. He wanted to get a better handle on Silver first. He may have been Dark, but perhaps he was a case like Riku and more complicated than he smelled.

            “We already know Jim,” Sora explained. “We met on the deck!”

            “Yeah,” Jim said sullenly. “We did.”

            “What’s wrong?” Sora asked Jim, noting his change in demeanor.

            “Jimbo here’s just sour because he’s been given cabin boy duty for the entire voyage,” Silver explained. “Wouldn’t even allow ‘im to watch the launch. Made ‘im stay down here to assist me instead. Not that I needed assisting…” Silver’s jovial attitude momentarily disappeared, but he put it back on quickly. “If ye all want to make yerselves useful, there’s more veggies to chop for the stew. Got to have a batch of this whipped up that can feed the whole crew by tonight!”

            “Okay,” Sora volunteered. “How do we start?”

            Silver doled out assignments. Sora chopped these vegetables here, Riku chopped those there, Jim peeled those there, Mickey kept the fire stoked, and Silver himself hauled an enormous slab of meat from an alien beast up onto the counter to begin to carve up.

            After a long absence of dialogue, the only sounds being those of cooking implements, Jim took a purple fruit out of a barrel. “Y’know,” he pointed out, “these purps are a lot like the ones back home. On Montressor. You ever been there?”

            The tone of Jim’s voice alerted Riku to the fact that he was suspicious of Silver too. Riku liked this, though he wondered exactly what about Silver had tipped Jim off.

            “I can’t say as I have, Jimbo,” Silver answered casually.

            “Come to think of it,” Jim went on, moving to sit up on one of the counters, “just before I left, I met this old guy. He was, um…he was kind of looking for a cyborg buddy of his.”

            “Is that so?” If Silver was offput by this line of questioning, he didn’t let it show.

            “Yeah,” Jim went on. “What was that old salamander’s name? Oh, yeah. BONES.” He watched Silver for a reaction. “Billy Bones?”

            Silver gave him nothing. “Bones?” he repeated. “Boooooones? ‘T’ain’t ringin’ any bells. Musta been a different cyborg. There’s a slew o’ cyborgs roamin’ this part.”

            “I think Jim thinks you’re hiding something,” Riku broke in.

            “Can’t imagine what,” Silver replied, still hard at work, now spooning the diced meat into a bowl.

            “Maybe the fact that you reek of the Darkness,” Riku stated.

            That got Silver to stop in his tracks. He set the half-filled bowl on the counter, then slowly turned to face Riku. “And how would ye know a thing like that?” he asked in a low, stern voice.

            Sora and Mickey, flabbergasted, turned away from their tasks to watch the exchange.

            “I smelled it the minute I entered this room,” Riku explained. “I can smell it on anyone. It’s part of what makes me such a good…Heartless exterminator.”

            The whistle blew announcing the ship’s launch. No one in the kitchen paid it any mind.

            “What are you hiding?” Riku reiterated.

            Silver sighed. “Guess I can’t hide some things. Everyone’s got a past, ‘aven’t they? An’ some of those pasts are more…savory than others. Take the captain. As fine a worker as you’ve ever seen, as honest as the day is long, the very pinnacle of an upstanding citizen since the day she was born. An’ me…I’ve seen a lot o’ years in my life. And only the last few of ‘em ‘ave been dedicated to honest cookin’. This Amelia, lettin’ me on ‘er ship, an’ that doctor payin’ for me services as crew, they did me a real good turn. ‘Aven’t been able to find a steady job for a while now. I done things I ain’t proud of, Riku. Things I truly ain’t proud of.”

            “Like what?” Jim asked.

            “Thievery,” Silver said somberly. “A couple grisly assignments carried out for pay. An’ one or two attempts to learn to control those things what we call Heartless. Only around five years ago, I saw what a mess it was makin’ of me, an’ I knew I ‘ad to call it quits.” He looked to his mechanical arm as he explained this.

            “Back then,” Sora inferred. “That’s when you lost all those…I mean when you got all your…”

            Silver got the gist of it. “You give up a few t’ings,” he said softly. “Chasin’ a dream.”

            Everyone present in the kitchen wondered exactly what sort of dream he’d been after, but it just didn’t seem prudent to ask.

Riku was satisfied with the answer Silver had given, and a little touched as well. “I think I know what you mean,” he said. “I have Darkness in my heart too. Not as much as I used to, though. I gave up my whole self chasing after my own dream. And in the end, that dream wasn’t really what I wanted. I thought I was doing the right thing by trying to save a friend, but all I was really doing was giving in to my own pride. The more power I got over the Darkness, the more I told myself it was for the greater good. For the world I called home, and a friend of mine that needed help. Someone who lost herself. I didn’t realize I was losing myself just as much. And I…” He looked toward Sora. “I ended up trying to hurt someone I loved, and I told myself it was because he deserved it.”

            “Aw, Riku…” Sora told him. “You don’t have to worry about that. It’s in the past. I’m okay now. I know why you did all that stuff.”

            “I know why I did it too,” Riku reminded him. “But that doesn’t make it all right.”

            “You’re my friend now,” Sora insisted, “and you’d NEVER hurt me again. Just like I’d never hurt you. That’s what makes it all right.”

            “Thank you.” Riku smiled slightly. “You…don’t know what it means for me to hear you say that, Sora.” He turned back to Silver. “And what you did was in the past too. I guess I can’t hold that against you.”

            “Mighty kind of ye to say such a thing,” Silver told Riku. “Wouldn’t blame ye for not trustin’ me.”

            “I’ll figure out whether or not I can trust you,” Riku told him. “Just like I figure it out with everyone else. But if your Darkness really comes from your past…then I won’t hold it against you.”

            “I thank ye kindly,” Silver told Riku. “Now, we’ve got a stew to be finishin’ up, don’t we?”

 

* * *

 

            The launching of the ship was chaos in the best possible way. Belle and Doppler gawked as they observed crewmen scuttling up and down the masts and rigging, unfurling the majestic solar sails that pulsated with crackling energy. The rear thrusters of the ship flared off as the vessel became truly airborne, putting distance between itself and Crescentia. Gravity was lost for a moment before an artificial field of it was activated, sending Doppler crashing to the deck yet again while Belle very nearly fell on her own face.

            After calling for full speed to be set, Amelia approached Doppler and Belle. “Brace yourself,” she said cheekily, looking right at Doppler. Doppler just rolled his eyes at this. Belle didn’t know exactly what had been discussed in the stateroom, but she had a feeling those two had spent quite a bit of it arguing.

            The Legacy rocketed off into the stratosphere and beyond, and Doppler was sent flying until he hit the nearest wall while Belle found herself knocked right onto her back on the deck.

            As soon as Belle could regain balance, she rushed over toward Doppler. By this time, the Legacy had left Crescentia far behind, and the surrounding skies were deep blue. “Are you all right?” Belle asked with concern, reaching down to take Doppler by the heavily armored arm.

            “I am quite all right,” Doppler said haughtily. “No thanks to that woman.” He accepted Belle’s assistance, and soon he too was righted.

            “Did you have an argument with her?” Belle asked.

            “I had several!” Doppler insisted. “She’s incorrigible! She’s impossible! And she’s downright rude!”

            Belle suddenly had to stifle a laugh. She remembered when she’d thought those exact same things about her beloved Adam. But she didn’t want to go too far down that path; there was nothing to indicate that there were sparks of any sort between Doppler and Amelia.

            After all, from Doppler’s perspective, the way she’d treated him since he got onboard negated her attractiveness, which was a superficial quality anyway.

            “Well, I hope – “ Belle began. 

            She was cut off. A Heartless materialized right before her and Delbert: a Pirate emblem variety, with a greatsword and an eyepatch with an “x” over it. It couldn’t keep still, erratically jerking this way and that where it stood and waving its blade.

            “What IS that thing?” Doppler cried. “Is that a Heartless? I’ve never seen one in PERSON!”

            Ten more popped into being, and five Air Pirates came along with them.

            “HEARTLESS ATTACK ON THE STERN!” Amelia bellowed. “I NEED ALL CAPABLE HANDS TO DECK!”

            “Weren’t your friends in charge of this?” Doppler asked in a panic.

            “Come with me!” Belle commanded, running for the kitchens. In order to get there, she had to run right through the crowd of Heartless. She took a chance, dodging the blade of one and leaping over another, but soon they had her surrounded, and she was quite unarmed. She tried to recall when she and the other Princesses of Heart had summoned Light to guard the Radiant Garden Keyhole. How had she done that? Could she do it again?

            She didn’t have to. Doppler took charge, running right at the horde, his armor knocking them aside as though he were a very awkward tank. Once he’d cleared the path, Belle resumed the run for the kitchens.

            The pair stumbled down the stairs, and Belle cried out, “Sora! Riku! Mickey! There are Heartless on the deck!”

            “We’re on it!” Sora replied confidently. Three Keyblades materialized, and Sora, Riku and Mickey charged for the deck.

            “Hey!” Jim called after them. “If there’s trouble, I wanna help!”

            “Ye really want to make yerself useful?” Silver tossed Jim a pistol. “Let’s see how your marksmanship is.”

            “Why do you have a GUN in your kitchen?” Jim cried in disbelief.

            “Some old habits die hard!” Silver told him. “Now are ye gonna just stand there an’ gawk at me, are are ye gonna fight?”

            “I’m gonna fight.” Jim turned and ran for the stairs, rushing past Belle and Doppler.

            Jim Hawkins joined the party.

            Silver took but a moment to switch out the setting on his arm so that a cutlass blade protruded from it rather than mechanical fingers. With a wicked grin, he charged after Jim, leaving Belle and Delbert alone in the kitchen.

            By that time, the deck was crawling with the shadowy creatures; the first horde had multiplied. “These are just small fry!” Sora bragged. “Watch this!”

            First he struck one of the Pirate Heartless from the left. Then he struck it from the right. Then he thrust the Keyblade directly forward through it, and it evaporated.

            “Pretty fancy moves,” Riku complimented. “But can you keep up with THIS?” He charged through a crowd of the Heartless, hitting several at once with the edge of his blade. As soon as he reached the end, he turned on a heel and came back at them from the other side. Back and forth he zipped until he’d reduced the Heartless to smoke and shadows.

            Mickey flipped through the air until he landed on an Air Pirate, taking it down in a single swipe of his blade. He touched ground only briefly before launching into the air again and cutting down a second Air Pirate.

            Jim skidded into the middle of the fray ready to fight. Careful to aim away from where Sora, Riku, and Mickey were engaged, he pulled the trigger on the pistol, releasing a bullet of purple energy. A Pirate Heartless staggered from taking the shot directly to the chest. Feeling more confident, Jim fired once more, and the Heartless evaporated completely.

            “Nice shot, Jim!” Sora called out.

            Jim turned to tell him thank you, and two Air Pirates knocked Jim down immediately. As they pinned him to the deck, a third rose high into the air, ready to plunge downward and attack Jim’s face. It dove, but halfway through its descent, it was skewered on a cutlass blade and dissipated.

            After taking out that particular Air Pirate, Silver slashed right through the other two holding Jim down before offering his biological hand to help Jim stand. “Yer marksmanship’s on point, Jimbo,” he teased, “but ye need to pay more attention!”

            In the meantime, Sora had remembered how to do that “Shotlock” technique Yen Sid had been trying to explain to him. He sent magical projectiles blasting across the deck, felling Heartless after Heartless. As he blasted them, Mickey bashed them, Riku clobbered them, Jim pumped them full of bullets, and Silver slashed them. At last, Mickey stabbed through the very last one, and no more spawned.

            “My word,” Amelia commented as she strode toward Sora, Riku, Mickey, Jim, and Silver. “That was the fastest we’ve ever been rid of those creatures, and with the least mess. I can see that my decision to keep you on as Heartless exterminators was well founded. Mr. Silver, I also had no idea you could battle with such precision. Mr. Hawkins…keep practicing that aim.”

            “But I hit at least twelve!” Jim protested.

            “Jim was really good!” Sora insisted.

            “I’m not going to argue this when there’s work to be done,” Amelia told them sternly. “Mr. Hawkins, after you’re finished helping Mr. Silver in the kitchens, he can show you where the mops and buckets are kept.”

            “But – “ Jim sputtered.

            “Best listen to what she says,” Silver told him cheekily. “After all, how are ye gonna learn to wield a weapon if ye can’t even handle a mop’n’bucket?”

            “I can help you out later!” Mickey offered. “After all, I used to do cleanup for Yen Sid all the time!” He briefly contemplated whether or not an enchanted mop would be of any use…and immediately thought better of it.

            Riku approached Silver. “I still need time to know if I can trust you,” he said in a low voice, “but I want to thank you for helping us. I saw what happened, and Jim would have been in real trouble without you.”

            “Happy to be of service,” Silver replied. “I only just got ‘im as me new assistant, after all. Would reflect badly on me as an employer if he died after the first day!”

            “Is it safe?” Belle asked, peering up from the stairs, with Doppler close behind.

            “ALL CLEAR!” Amelia called out. “THE DECK IS ALL CLEAR!” She then turned back to her Heartless extermination squad, her ship’s cook, and the cabin boy. “Now there’s work to be done, so don’t dawdle!”

            “Right!” Sora told her. “Let’s go finish that stew!”

            Amelia returned to her position at the helm next to Arrow, and Sora, Riku, Mickey, and Jim went back to the kitchen to work while Doppler and Belle hung close to them in order to hear the story of their derring-do during the Heartless attack.

            Silver cast a glance around the ship. Several of the crewmen gave him a knowing look in return.

            He nearly stepped on a rope that hadn’t been there before; the rope gelled into a pink creature, a floating blob of jelly with two eyes, that hovered up next to Silver and made a squeak. Silver gently stroked the creature, muttering, “We’d best be keepin’ an eye on that lot, haven’t we, Morph?”

 

END OF ACT I


	2. Act II

For several days, the Legacy made its way across the Etherium, and its crew and passengers settled into a comfortable routine. Sora, Riku, Mickey, and Belle chipped in wherever they could, especially helping Jim get comfortable with his many duties as cabin boy. Cooking and cleaning went a lot faster with four more people involved. Conversely, Jim and Silver were never far away whenever another batch of Heartless appeared on deck, and between them and the Keybearing trio, they were an unstoppable force against the likes of the Pirate and Air Pirate Heartless that plagued the ship so often. Belle and Doppler had taken rather a shine to each other as friends, and together they would stare in wonder at the odd creatures and strangely shaped celestial bodies that the Legacy passed. Of course, Amelia was never far away, keeping everything shipshape as she saw fit, with Arrow in tow. She warmed up to Jim, Sora, Riku, and Belle quite a bit more, and always had a pleasant word for Mickey. Conversely, she tended to scoff at Silver. At first, whenever she and Doppler engaged in a conversation, an argument of some scale was just around the corner, but lately this had been happening less and less.

 

* * *

 

            One night found Jim, Sora, Riku, Mickey, and Belle all scrubbing the deck long after the rest of the crew had gone to sleep…or so they thought. As it turned out, there was one left awake. Silver trod out onto the deck’s floorboards, with Morph hovering about as usual.

            “Couldn’t sleep?” Riku asked him. He’d learned to become used to the aura of Darkness that followed Silver everywhere. It had still seemed to be nothing more than a mere presence. Perhaps, he thought, it was just an imprint that would never go away.

            “Just wanted to check in on me crew,” Silver replied jovially. “Especially Jimbo here. The captain had some complaints that ye missed a spot last night, and I got the brunt of it in the mornin’!”

            “Oh, not fair!” Jim sighed. “How do you know it was even me? It could’ve been Sora!”

            “Thanks,” Sora replied sarcastically.

            “Oh, and, uh…I’d been meaning to tell you,” Jim went on, his tone now more reticent. “When the first Heartless attack happened, and I screwed up and let them hit me. What you did then. I just…” He sighed. “Thanks. And…thanks for looking out for me during the other attacks, too.”

            “’T’weren’t nothin’,” Silver replied. “Ye’ve made good progress with that pistol, Jimbo. Surprises me nowadays…I remember me pap teachin’ me to hit a mark from thirty yards when I was just a lad. Forget sometimes that not everyone grows up learnin’ that.”

            “I wouldn’t know,” Jim said gruffly before turning away from Silver and mopping the deck rather furiously.

            An awkward silence reigned before Silver broke it: “Yer father weren’t the teachin’ sort.”

            “No,” Jim grunted. “He was more of the ‘taking of and never coming back’ sort.”

            “What?” Sora broke in. “That’s awful! Why would he want to leave you?”

            “I don’t know,” Jim sighed. “I’ve asked myself that question…I don’t know how many times.”

            “But – “ Sora tried again.

            Riku put a hand on Sora’s shoulder, signaling that he had best not probe too far; Sora got the hint. “I’m sorry,” Riku said briskly. “About your father.”

            “Me too,” Mickey chimed in sadly. “Real sorry.”

            “Hey, it’s no big deal,” Jim said in an attempt to brush it off. “I’m doing just fine.”

            He was clearly lying. Sora, Riku, Mickey, and Belle looked to one another, each wondering what they should say and wondering if the others had the answer.

            But it was Silver who knew exactly what to do. Breaking into a broad grin, he asked, “Is that so? Well, the captain has put ye in my charge, and like it or not, I’ll be poundin’ a few skills into that thick head of yours to keep ye out of trouble! From now on, I’m not lettin’ ye out of me sight!”

            “Wait, WHAT?” Jim retaliated. “You can’t – “

            “From now on, you won’t sleep, eat, or scratch your bum without my sayin’ so!” Silver insisted.

            “Don’t do me any favors!” Jim cried.

            “Oh, you can be sure of THAT!” Silver laughed, tapping Jim on the chest with his mechanical fingers. With that, he turned to move belowdeck. “You can be sure of that!”

            After he’d gone, Jim cried, “Can you BELIEVE him? I shouldn’t have told him about my dad!”

            “I think you did the right thing,” Riku told Jim. “You do realize what he’s doing now, right?”

            “WHAT?” Jim asked in exasperation.

            “Acting like a dad,” Riku spelled out.

            “He almost reminds me of my own father, sometimes,” Belle chimed in. “When he gets excited. I know that gleam in his eye.”

            “The real one, or the robot one?” Sora asked. This question didn’t warrant an answer.

            “It looks like I was wrong about him,” Riku resolved. “The Darkness was just in his past. We don’t have anything to worry about.”

            But it was that statement that was wrong.

 

* * *

 

 

            Silver was good for his word, and soon had Jim doing far more duties than he was originally assigned. Sora, Riku, Mickey, and Belle had to pick up the slack with cooking and mopping while Silver coached Jim in scraping barnacles off the bottom of the ship, tying intricate rope knots, scrubbing out dishes, wrangling longboats, and hitting targets from faraway distances with his pistol so as not to slip up again in another Heartless invasion.

            “I like them together,” Riku commented after watching Silver correct Jim’s aim during another marksmanship session. “I think they’re good for each other.”

            “I do too,” Belle agreed. “I think Jim really has taken to Silver as a father.”

            “And call me crazy,” Mickey added, “but I think Silver’s starting to think of Jim as a son!”

            “MR. SILVER!” Amelia barked from the helm. “MR. HAWKINS! KINDLY REFRAIN FROM SETTING OFF FIREARMS WITHOUT WARNING ON MY DECK!”

            That put an end to weapons training for the day.

 

* * *

 

            Wandering to the reading room to look for some new material – for she’d finished almost everything on the shelf – Belle came across an unusual sight. Doppler was seated at the single small table there, attempting to read a book, his face knotted in consternation. Unaware he was being watched, he suddenly slammed his forehead down onto the book. “Oh, it’s hopeless!” he groaned. “Simply hopeless!”

            “Dr. Doppler?” Belle tentatively approached him at the table. “Are you all right?”  
            “OH!” Doppler’s head shot up, and he attempted the visage of someone who was casually reading. “Of course. Just a momentary breakdown. Happens to the best of us. You know us scientific types. We’ve always got so much on our mind that we…that it…” He sighed dramatically. “Oh, forget it. It’s no use trying to pretend. Belle, I consider you a trustworthy person and a fellow lover of academia. Can I confide a secret in you?”

            “Of course,” Belle answered sympathetically.

            “Shut the door, will you please?” Doppler asked. “I’m…not sure I want anyone else hearing.”

            “All right.” Belle genty pulled the door closed behind her. Then she took a seat across from Doppler.

            “I don’t quite know how to say this,” he admitted, “but…I think I’m starting to develop…FEELINGS for the captain.”

            Belle had to fight back a proud smirk. She’d been right after all. “Why don’t you tell her?”

            “Because it’s just not meant to be.” Doppler closed the book in front of him, eyes cast downward to its cover. “She’s confident, she’s competent, she always knows what to do in every situation, she has the respect of everyone onboard, she’s got a highbrow sense of humor…and look at me. All I have to offer is a head full of facts and numbers. I’m not athletic. I’m not good at handling a crowd. I don’t have half the confidence she does. And in her eyes, I haven’t done one thing right since I set foot aboard this ship. She deserves someone who can be her equal. And most of all, she’d never have feelings for me. Not in that way. I don’t see why she would.” A pause. “Or…why anyone would.”

            “Oh, Dr. Doppler…” Belle already knew exactly what to say, and she offered him a warm smile. “You shouldn’t think like that. You have a lot to offer. You’re intelligent, you’re kind, you’re organized enough to pull together an entire crew…I think you and Amelia are equals. Well, outside of the fact that she is the captain. I don’t know how she feels about you, but I don’t think it’s impossible for her to feel that way about you at all. I’ve seen her face when she used to argue with you all the time. I got the feeling part of her was happy just to talk with you. And she hasn’t had a complaint about you at all lately. If nothing else, I think she thinks of you as a very good friend.”

            “I’d thought even that was too much to ask for,” Doppler admitted. “That was…all very astute observations, Belle. You don’t…” He was stricken with a fear. “You don’t have feelings like that for me, do you? It’s not that there’s anything wrong with you, of course. You’re a true friend and a respectably voracious reader. But with me besotted with Amelia like this, I’m afraid I simply don’t – “

            “Oh, it’s not like that,” Belle reassured him. “I’m already in love with someone else. But the things you said reminded me of both things I said and things he said before we knew each other. He didn’t think he could ever be loved. He thought he was…beastly. And he was, at first, but deep down, there couldn’t be a kinder person in all of the worlds. And while love wasn’t on my mind as much at first, I thought I was undesirable too. Everyone in town always called me odd because of my love of books and the way I always wanted to help my father with his unique inventions. The most handsome man in town wanted to marry me, but he didn’t know anything about who I really was. All he knew was that I looked beautiful to him. And he was the real monster. Even now, I miss Adam. It’s hard being apart from him…but we each have our own things to take care of, and that’s what we’re doing now. I just know that no matter where either of us goes or what either of us looks like, we’ll always have each other, and someday, we’ll be back together again, dancing and sharing stories and playing in the snow.”

            Belle’s dreamy smile infected Doppler with a grin of his own. “Adam is a very lucky man,” he stated sincerely. “And from the sounds of it, you are a very lucky woman.”

            “And I think that you and Amelia both have the chance to be that lucky,” Belle replied. “With each other, or with other people you’ve yet to meet who are your true loves. But if you want to know the truth, I’m hoping for you two to be each other’s love. You bickered the way Adam and I used to, after all. And now, I can tell she’s happy you’re here.”

            “Thank you for this, Belle,” Doppler told her. “It means a lot.”

            There came a knock at the door. “You okay in there?” Sora asked.

            “Can I tell him to come in?” Belle asked.

            “Oh, why not?” Doppler shrugged.

            “Come in!” Belle called out to the door.

            Sora entered, walking up to the table. “What’re you two talking about?” he asked.

            “Just good books we’ve been reading,” Belle answered.

            “Actually…” Filled with just that much more confidence, Doppler decided to let Sora in on some of the details. “I’ve…fallen for someone. Someone I think is far better than me in every way.”

            “Y’know what?” Sora told him, recalling a conversation once had on a dark beach. “If you think like that, I bet that person’s actually jealous of you and is afraid you’re better than them at everything. And what’s really going on is you’re both good at your own thing, and you just need to stop trying to decide who’s better and work together!”

            “I suppose that happened with you and the one you love as well,” Doppler speculated.

            “Um…” Sora thought it over. “Yes and no. It happened, but we’re not…well, we’re not exactly…not yet.”

            “Then I wish you the best with that person,” Doppler told Sora.

            “Same to you,” he replied.

 

* * *

 

            “D’ye want to come out with me on one of the longboats for surveillance?” Silver asked Jim as the regular gang was gathered in the kitchen.

            “DO I?” Jim was awestruck. “Of COURSE! I’ve been wanting to try out one of those things for days!”

            “We should go too!” Sora told Riku.

            “Sora,” Riku reminded him, “we have our Keyblade skimmers. We don’t need to ride the longboats.”

            “It’s not the same thing!” Sora emphasized. “It could be totally different! I think the longboats go a little faster. Besides, we can’t BOTH ride a Keyblade. Not comfortably, anyway. If we take a longboat, the two of us will have plenty of room to stretch out and ride together!”

            Riku wondered if Sora was implying what he thought Sora was implying…or if it was just his inner hopes getting up again. “Then let’s do it,” he agreed.

            “Whaddaya say, Belle?” Mickey asked. “Should the two of us go out on a little joyride of our own?”

            “I think I’d like that,” Belle confirmed.

 

* * *

 

            Three longboats jettisoned, one after the other: Jim and Silver’s, Sora and Riku’s, and Mickey and Belle’s.

            “Now, Jimbo,” Silver began to explain, “the longboat’s controls are finicky. One wrong move, and you could send it careenin’ across the – “

            “Yeah, yeah!” Jim interrupted. “Let’s just put some speed on this thing!” He cranked the gear shift lever, and the longboat rocketed into high velocity, nearly causing Silver to lose his hat. Silver had just the slightest flash of panic, but it was clear Jim knew what he was doing; the boy had a gift with vehicles and with mechanics. In no time, Jim had spotted a comet soaring through the Etherium space, and set his sights on catching up with it. The longboat did so, entering the comet’s wake and accumulating a layer of sparkling white stardust, before overtaking the comet and continuing its journey forward.

            “Ye’re a natural!” Silver laughed.

            “I’ve had a lot of practice on my board!” Jim replied. “You better hold on to that hat!”

            He took the longboat on another sharp turn, zipping over open space, Jim’s cry of “WOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOO!” echoing.

            Sora and Riku watched this display from afar. They hadn’t put too much distance between themselves and the Legacy, and Jim and Silver’s boat was slowly becoming a dot on the horizon.

            “They look like they’re having fun,” Sora commented.

            “They really do,” Riku agreed.

            Their longboat drifted more casually through space, and from where they sat in it, Sora and Riku had a good view of the stars that speckled the sky like so many diamonds.

            “Y’know, Riku…” Sora turned to face Riku directly.

            “Yeah, Sora?” Riku faced him in return, and once again, the eyes connected, sending that jolt through him. But this time, he didn’t look away.

            “I like this,” Sora remarked. “Being out here with you, under all the stars.”

            “Me too,” Riku concurred. “It’s…really beautiful.”

            “The thing is…” Sora went on. “We’re out here in the middle of this endless-looking space in a giant world that’s the farthest away from home we’ve ever gone. But I don’t really feel homesick. I don’t really feel…like I’m not at home. I figured it out during our Mark of Mastery, when we were helping each other in those parallel dreams. Whenever I’m with you, I just feel like I’m right where I need to be. And I wanted to thank you for being with me so much, even when I didn’t know I needed you.”

            “I…” Riku tried to figure out what to possibly say to that. “Thank…you.” He was aware that his face was flushed with heat. “Sora, I…” It was tempting to break contact with those blue, blue eyes and look back out at the stars, but it would have been a coward’s act. He needed to face this with confidence and say what needed to be said. “I feel the same way. I only ever felt lost when I was running away from you. I’ve done too much of that, and for all the wrong reasons. It still haunts me that when I was working with Maleficent, I tried to hurt you. I never want to put you in that kind of danger again.”

            “How many times do I have to tell you it’s okay before you start believing me, Riku?” Sora asked. “Because I can say it as many times as you need. But I don’t want you to beat yourself up about that anymore! So…cut it out!”

            Riku let himself smile. “It’s hard to just…cut it out. But I’ll try. Besides…things like that are easier with you around. You make me feel like I can be anything. Even…something better. I guess that’s my responsibility in the long run, but you always help. So…thank you. For being there for me.”

            “Hey, it’s nothin’!” Sora replied happily. “So, uh, Riku…if…you don’t mind…there’s something I kinda wanted to tell you, but I wasn’t sure if I should say it. Promise you won’t think it’s weird?”

            “I probably will think it’s weird,” Riku teased. “You’re always weird.” He nudged Sora playfully. “But I think I wanna hear it anyway. After all, there are times I think I’m not weird enough.”

            “Well…” Sora thought of how best to phrase it. “I’ve been feeling this way for a while. You know we’re good friends, right?”

            “Right.”

            “And…we’ve been through a lot together!”

            “We have.”

            “I think I might see you a little differently now than I did before,” Sora stated.

            Riku nodded. “The Darkness changes – “

            “No. Not like that.” Sora shook his head. “In a better way. I don’t know if I can call it ‘love’ yet. But it’s…closer to how Belle and Beast are.”

            Riku flinched. He hadn’t expected to hear that at all.

            “…I knew it would be weird,” Sora groaned.

            “No,” Riku said quickly. “It’s not! I’m just…surprised. I didn’t have any idea. You’re just so…confident about it. I’m not really sure how. I know I’m…not.”

            Sora missed the hint. “I dunno. It’s not that it isn’t a big deal. But it’s not something I really get worried about. I know that no matter what, I can count on you. I’m guessing you probably don’t like me like that, and that’s okay. Just being around you and having you as a friend is important to me, and I’d rather have that than nothing at all. Or have us be enemies again. I just thought that you should know. And maybe, if you liked me back, it’d be nice if we could be…more. Does that make sense?”

            “It does,” Riku said with a nod. Then a thought occurred to him, one that had gotten in the way of his own feelings for so long. “What about Kairi?”

            “What about her?”

            “I always thought you felt that way about her.”

            “I had a little crush on her for a bit,” Sora confessed. “But not anymore. She’s a great friend too, and if I had to fight my way across the worlds to keep her safe, I’d do it all over again. But she’s more like a sister. Somebody fun to hang out with. And trust me, I’d fight forever to keep you safe. You’re fun to hang out with, too, but now, when I see Esmeralda and Phoebus holding hands, or Cinderella and Charming dancing, or Ariel and Eric kissing, I just think…I wanna do that with you.”

            “Sora…” It was time. He had to just let it out. “I’ve been thinking the same thing about you. For a long time now.”

            “WHAT?” Sora’s eyes widened; he was stunned. “That’s AWESOME! WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY SO EARLIER?”

            He took that as his cue that it was okay to lace his fingers in between Riku’s, gripping his hand tightly. Riku gave Sora’s hand an affectionate squeeze in return. The ever-present fingerless gloves they wore to better grip their blades somewhat dulled the contact, but only in the physical sense.

            “I didn’t know when it would be right to say,” Riku explained. “Or if it would be right at all. Part of me thought you were in love with Kairi. But I think a bigger part of me just thought that…you couldn’t love me. Not after everything I’ve done. I’m…nothing like you. I gave in to the Darkness. I’ve hurt people, I’ve destroyed things, and I could never be as confident about anything as you are. Sometimes I still can’t believe I’m the one who was made a Master.”

            “I can,” Sora told him. “Because you overcame all that stuff. You did mess up, but you fixed it. And it wasn’t easy. The other people I met who abused the Darkness, like Shan-Yu and Captain Hook, they didn’t care one bit about what they did wrong. But even when you were completely swallowed by it, you remembered who your real friends were and what you wanted to protect. That’s what makes you so special, Riku.” He put his right palm over Riku’s chest. “Your heart took a beating, but it always bounces back!”

            “I’d rather be like you,” Riku confessed. “Unable to be hurt for very long. Able to just face your fears with a smile.”

            “But you’re not me,” Sora reminded him. “You’re you. And I wouldn’t feel this way about you if you weren’t you. Trust me, Riku, if I wanted to date myself, I’d be talking to Roxas right about now.”

            Riku broke into laughter at that. “Sorry. That was funny.”

            “I try!”

            They spent some moments in silence, just enjoying the stars and each other, before Riku pointed out, “This could be dangerous.”

            “How?” Sora asked.

            “People like Maleficent and Xehanort already know that if they want to get to you, they have to go after your friends,” Riku explained. “Saïx demonstrated that pretty well. If we become something more, then they might never stop going after me to get to you, and they might never stop going after you to get to me.”

            “I think if there’s one thing I’ve learned through all of this,” Sora countered, “ever since the night we first left the Destiny Islands, it’s that we can overcome way more together than we can on our own. If they’re going to come after us, then we should stick together so we can knock ‘em all down! Especially you and me. Don’t tell Donald and Goofy, but I think we make the best team there is out of anyone!”

            “We do,” Riku agreed.

            “So…would it be all right if I kissed you now?” Sora asked, and for the first time, he felt truly nervous. Even in the dim lighting of Etherium space, it was apparent he was blushing.

            “More than all right,” Riku told him.

            They moved toward each other until they were connected at the lips, both pairs of eyes so blue closed in absolute bliss.

 

* * *

 

 

            On a path a little higher than either other longboat, and running a bit closer to the Legacy, Mickey and Belle’s boat floated lazily along. Though Mickey had seen such things as starscapes before, many times, Belle was awestruck, practically leaning over the side of the boat in order to get a better look at things such as the comet that Jim had decided to race.

            “So, Belle,” Mickey asked, “I know ya weren’t all that happy about this whole thing earlier. I wanted to make sure you were doin’ okay.”

            Belle settled back into the boat. “Thank you,” she told Mickey. “To tell you the truth, I still don’t feel like I’ve been all that much help. Every time the Heartless come on board, all I can do is run and hide. But all the same…I’m glad I came. This has been the adventure of a lifetime.”

            “Oh, I think you’ve been a big help!” Mickey countered. “Dr. Doppler mentioned to me earlier that you talked to him about some kind of problem, and he really liked whatcha said! Anyway, I’m glad you came along. Y’know, after this, I think you and Adam should take the time to explore even more worlds!”

            “Maybe we should,” Belle agreed. “But…not all the time. This is wonderful, but it will be just as wonderful when Adam and I can sit by the fire at home and talk about books for a while.”

            The boat’s course took them above Sora and Riku’s vessel, and glancing down, Mickey gasped. Belle immediately looked at what he had spied, wondering what could get that kind of reaction out of him, and got a full view of Sora and Riku’s kiss.

            “Y’know what?” Mickey realized out loud. “I really shoulda seen that comin’ earlier! But we should probably give ‘em some privacy!” He turned the longboat around so that it was steering away from the happy couple. “And more importantly, not tip ‘em off that we saw!”

            “I’m happy for them,” Belle said earnestly, realizing what Sora had meant earlier after her conversation with Doppler.

            “So am I,” Mickey told her. “I think everyone but Donald’s gonna be happy about this!”

            “Why wouldn’t Donald be happy?” Belle asked quizzically.

            “Because if they’re really together,” Mickey laughed, “then he owes Goofy, Kairi, and me ten munny each!”

 

* * *

 

            The six reunited in the hold of the Legacy, where Silver was unendingly awed by Jim’s skill with the boat: “If I coulda done that at your age, they’d’ve been bowin’ to me in the streets!”

            “Well, when I left home, they weren’t exactly singing my praises,” Jim scoffed. “But I’ve got some plans to change the way they see me.”

            The words struck both Silver and Riku. They’d both thought that exact thing before. “…Plans change,” Silver said softly.

            “Be careful,” Riku warned. “Sometimes the plans you make for yourself end up making a bigger mess.”

            “Why are you all being so negative about this?” Sora asked. “I think it’s great that Jim has dreams!”

            Dreams, Riku thought, looking again at Silver’s mechanical arm.

            “It has something to do with the Darkness, doesn’t it?” Belle guessed.

            “Aye,” Silver confirmed. “It’s altogether too easy to fall to it. It can work out for some. But not always.” He looked to Jim. “Be wary of it.”

            “I’m not gonna fall to Darkness!” Jim protested. “What do you think I am? You’re starting to sound just like everyone back home!”

            “Sorry,” Riku apologized quickly. “I just remember when I thought I was going to change the way everyone saw me, and what I did.”

            “An’ I s’pose at the end of the day, no one’s perfect,” Silver added.

            Now Jim was again fixated on Silver’s false arm and leg. “Your dream,” he asked. “Was it worth it?”

            “I hope it is, Jimbo,” Silver replied. “I sure hope it is.”

 

 

* * *

 

            That night, as the Heartless extermination squad dispersed to their cabins, Belle and Mickey made sure they were in bed as quickly as possible so as to give Sora and Riku some time alone.

            “I had a great time tonight,” Sora told Riku. “Then again, I always do with you.”

            “One of these days, you’re gonna flatter me too much,” Riku laughed.

            “G’night!” Sora quickly pecked Riku on the cheek before heading into his cabin and closing the door.

            Riku stood in the hallway, frozen, for a little while. Then he softly knocked on Sora’s cabin door.

            “Yeah?” Sora answered as he opened the door.

            Riku quickly lay a kiss between Sora’s brows as soon as he had the chance. “Goodnight yourself.”

            When Sora closed the door this time, Riku realized that if things kept going in this direction, one day they wouldn’t be picking separate cabins to sleep in, and his heart leapt at the thought.

 

* * *

 

            Silver entered his meager cabin, then turned to lock the door behind him. As he did so, he became aware of the sound of a Corridor of Darkness opening up in his room, and a chilling aura was at his back, as though the room had suddenly filled with ice. He knew who had come. And he knew exactly why.

            “Mr. Silver,” the cold female voice said calmly, all too calmly. “Your relationship with Mr. Hawkins grows ever more touching.”

            “I don’t see how that’s any of yer business,” Silver grunted. Reluctantly, he turned to face the tall, thin woman draped in black. “He ain’t one of the ones you asked me to take care of.”

            “And how is your progress on that front, Mr. Silver?” Maleficent asked coyly. “After all, I made good on my half of the bargain already. You are en route to the greatest treasure in all the Etherium, as you always dreamed. And yet the hearts of Sora, Riku, the mouse, and the princess still burn bright.”

            “I ain’t at that treasure yet,” Silver growled. “So don’t talk to me of yer half of the deal bein’ fulfilled. An’ I can’t just kill ‘em in plain sight of the crew. It’s called earnin’ their trust.”

            “Which you’ve well earned,” Maleficent reminded him. “Even Riku no longer suspects you. Surely there has been an opportunity to throw one of them over the side of the ship, or to arrange an accident in the kitchens that could be blamed on a burner or a spill. It would even be forgivable if you found the Keybearers too difficult to take on, or if you found it all too suspicious for all four to be doused at once. But the one I specifically asked you to remove from the equation…”

            “Why her, anyhow?” Silver snapped.

            “She holds one seventh of a key even greater than anything the three warriors possess,” Maleficent explained. “I once tried to use that key for myself, to no avail. Now I wish to see to it that if I cannot, neither can a particularly persistent adversary.”

            “I’ll put yer princess’ head on the choppin’ block when the mutiny occurs, an’ not a second before,” Silver insisted. “I’ve planned this from the beginnin’, y’know! Ye just couldn’t trust me when I said I had t’ings under control, could ye now?”

            “I had taken you for an altogether different sort of man, Silver.” Maleficent’s tone had turned threatening. “In fact, I found your willingness to turn to deceit and false friendship similar to that of a far more promising associate of mine. He earned the trust and love of the second in line to the throne of a kingdom crucial to my endeavors within a matter of hours, and nearly had that throne for himself within a few more. Had he chosen to behead a girl on the spot rather than leave her to freeze to death, perhaps he would have won me what I wanted. That was what you had that he lacked: the ability to pull a trigger. Or so I thought. But watching you with that Hawkins boy makes me wonder. Are you truly as willing to do anything to get what you want as I believed? Or are you a coward who lets others toy with his heart?”

            “I’m NO coward!” Silver roared before remembering to keep his voice down; no one could know he was conversing with the Mistress of All Evil. “Ye might be used to crashin’ through life, cuttin’ down everyone who stands in yer way, but that’s what ends ye up with a dagger t’rough the heart sooner than not!”

            “I know well of daggers to the heart,” Maleficent replied.

            “Then ye know not all of us can survive more than one,” Silver challenged. “If I ain’t given ye what ye want by the time I’ve got Flint’s trove in me fingers, then do what ye will to me. But if ye want the job done right, then ye’ll stop interruptin’ it and trust I know what I’m doin’!”

            “And the Hawkins boy…?”

            Now Silver’s tone was playful. “I’ll be throwin’ ‘is bones out with the potato peelin’s he so kindly skinned for me.”

            “Listen well, John Silver,” Maleficent told him as the Corridor reopened behind her. “There is many a dark heart I can turn to my purposes. And should you fail me, one of those purposes shall be to destroy you.”

            “Yer clear as crystal, yer evilness,” Silver replied, whipping off his hat and bowing.

            Maleficent stepped backward twice, into the Corridor, and it whisked her away. Silver let out a sigh of relief once she was gone. The temperature in the room began to climb back up to lukewarm.

            What he didn’t know was that she hadn’t left to watch him from her faraway lair. She’d had enough of waiting for Silver to act, and so was seeking out another prospect in the Etherium: one she was sure could net her some results.

 

* * *

 

            Every night, Scroop was assigned to check the rigging. And every night, he contemplated just severing all the ropes. Why should he have to wait any longer? But no, giving the game away would ruin Silver’s perfect plan. His plan that never, ever seemed to get anywhere.

            Finishing up his work, Scroop dropped onto the deck with a thud, his spidery legs all clickety-clacking beneath him into place. He was the only one on deck, and took the moment to enjoy the absence of idiots’ chatter.

            But he wasn’t alone for long.

            A Corridor materialized. Scroop was at first confused by what seemed to be a miniature black hole on the deck of the Legacy. He still wasn’t quite sure what to make of it when a woman stepped out of it.

            “Mr. Scroop,” Maleficent greeted.

            “Who’ssssss assssssking?” Scroop growled.

            “I have come with a proposition for you,” Maleficent told him with a grin.

            “I don’t want to lisssssten to any more proposssssitionssss,” Scroop hissed.

            No sooner had he said that than he found his entire body pricked with sharp pains; he sucked air in through a clenched jaw and squeezed his eyelids shut. A black vine studded with thorns had wrapped itself around him at its mistress’ command, binding Scroop’s arms to his sides and tangling around his legs so that he knew if he tried to take a step, he would collapse.

            “Perhaps now you shall listen,” Maleficent went on. “I believe, however, that you shall appreciate what I have to say.”

 

* * *

 

            It was another fine afternoon for travel, Amelia thought as she regarded the deck below. Perfect, in fact. The ship hadn’t seen trouble from the Heartless all day, and the weather was clear.

            She strode down onto the deck to take a look around. Sora, Riku, and Mickey were passing the time by playing a game where they tried to keep a ball aloft by each hitting it in turn with their key-shaped swords; Mickey fumbled the ball, and it bopped him on the head, right between the ears, causing the other two to laugh heartily and slap a high-five. Jim sat on a nearby barrel, slicing a purp; he offered bits of the violet fruit to the three Heartless exterminators before putting one in his own mouth. Silver came abovedeck only shortly to inform them that he was putting together another stew and could use extra hands; Jim eagerly slid off the barrel to answer the call, followed by Mickey, then by Sora and Riku, who came arm in arm. At one end of the deck, Belle hadn’t been able to decide whether she wanted to spend the day outside taking in the sights or inside reading, so she’d split the difference, bringing the book up to read beneath the Etherium air. At the opposite end of the deck, Doppler had his camera ready for Amelia-knew-not-what. When a school of sky rays came by, flapping their makeshift wings and twitching their electrically charged stingers, the captain knew what the doctor had been waiting for; he clicked the trigger of his camera rapidly in order to document his sighting of the creatures.

            “Lovely things, aren’t they?” Amelia remarked, walking toward Doppler. It seemed that was what she’d been doing a lot lately: moving close to him to talk to him about one thing or another, relevant or not. Perhaps she’d been doing it longer than she’d realized, looking for excuses to pick on him in the early stages. He was simply magnetic, she thought, what with the absolute enthusiasm for life he radiated. He was hardly ever quiet about any emotion he had; when he was frustrated, sad, afraid, what have you, everything within a ten foot radius seemed to take that emotion on for itself. But it was best when he was happy. That was when it seemed the entire Etherium had a reason to smile.

            “Absolutely!” Doppler replied. He recognized her voice – it was now impossible for him not to – but he kept his camera trained on the rays. Affection or not, he wasn’t about to let a photo opportunity like this slide. Besides that, he wasn’t quite sure how he’d react to having her piercing gaze turned fully upon him. “Do you know I’d always dreamed of seeing a sky ray in person? Well, I’d seen one in the zoo, of course. Everyone has. But it was what you’d expect of a zoo specimen: domesticated to the point where it didn’t seem like itself. Now, these…these are WILD sky rays! Rays that have had the freedom to grow into whatever they wanted to be! Flapping through the sky! Feeding on infinitesimally small biological forms! Whipping their electric stingers in defense from anything that might get too close – “

            Just as Doppler said this, one of the rays took to him as a potential threat, lashing its stinger at him, the current pulsing through it with a nearly audible buzz.

            “LOOK OUT, DOCTOR!” Amelia gripped Doppler by the shoulders and jerked him backward, hard, out of range of the ray’s whip by just a hair. Once the ray had passed, Amelia let go, feeling somewhat flustered, though she wouldn’t dare show it.

            Doppler, on the other hand, was incredibly flustered, and visibly so. “Thank you,” he said almost breathlessly. “I was nearly on the receiving end of two thousand volts of undiluted electricity!”

            “Two thousand?” Amelia remarked. “Quite a lot.”

            “Indeed so.”

            “You know,” Amelia recalled, “when I was younger, my family would oft take me to the zoo in my hometown of Smollett, on the planet Alexandra. Father was quite an emphatic fan of your sky rays, though he had the tendency to refer to them as ‘flap-flaps.’”

            “Not quite the scientific term,” Doppler commented, “but neither is it wholly inaccurate.”

            “But I quite agree with your analysis,” Amelia went on. “Pity to see those lovely beasties penned up in close quarters when they should be flying free as all that. Such creatures deserve at least that much.”

            “Just like some deckhands,” Doppler risked. “They don’t deserve to spend their lives mopping and scrubbing. They deserve to become captains and fly wherever they wish in all the Etherium.”

            “If you’re trying to win a pass for Hawkins out of his duties as cabin boy, Doctor, it’s simply not going to work.”

            “I wasn’t talking about Jim.”

            Amelia nodded. “I think I’m starting to understand your comparison. It’s like keeping an intellectual penned up in a claustrophobic library instead of letting him out to experience all he’s read about for himself.”

            “Claustrophobic libraries aren’t all bad,” Doppler argued. “They’re quite comfortable, really! But in certain cases, nothing can compare to firsthand experience.”

            “It seems we’ve finally come to an agreement on something,” Amelia remarked. “Other than that Silver’s stew is delicious enough that the thought of it makes one salivate, but really, who doesn’t agree with that?”

            “I’m not about to argue,” Doppler stated, looking Amelia directly in the eye for the first time since they’d begun this conversation.

            The sudden shockwave seemed to come from nowhere. Both Doppler and Amelia stumbled. Belle’s book went over the edge, dropping into infinite space.

            Sora was the first of the group in the kitchen to skid onto the deck. “What was THAT?” he cried.

            Doppler looked back over the railing. The sky rays had long passed, but another sight was making itself clear: an enormous explosion growing on the horizon. “Good heavens…” He drew a collapsible telescope from his pocket as Amelia looked on anxiously. “The star Pelusa. It’s gone SUPERNOVA!”

            That was all Amelia needed to hear. Without wasting a single second, she was racing to the helm, barking out orders: “EVASIVE ACTION, MR. TURNBUCKLE!”

            “AYE!” The many-tentacled helmsman pulled the Legacy into a U-turn to bring it on a direct course away from the combusting star.

            “ALL HANDS FASTEN YOUR LIFELINES!” Arrow called out; by this time, Riku, Mickey, Silver, and Jim had arrived on deck. The entire crew fumbled for a series of ropes fastened to the main mast, each wrapping a lifeline around themselves and tightening it against the mast as a precautionary measure to potentially being thrown off the ship. There were enough lines to go all around, even to Sora, Riku, Mickey, and Belle.

            By then, the entire sky had taken on a shade of bright orange as the explosion from the enormous star was gaining on the Legacy like a behemoth of a whale sweeping for krill. Windows shattered. Meteorites punctured the solar sails.

            “MR. ARROW!” Amelia cried. “SECURE THOSE SAILS!”

            “SECURE ALL SAILS!” Arrow repeated. “BRING THEM DOWN, MEN!”

            As the crew struggled to furl the sails atop the masts, a projectile became silhouetted against the background of fire and flame. At first, it looked like just another meteor, but as it got closer, Doppler could see that it was not rock tinged with flame, but rather something jet-black tinged with red and gold.

            “No!” he cried in disbelief. “IT CAN’T BE!”

            “WHAT IS IT, DOCTOR?” Amelia yelled to him.

            “IN VERY RARE CASES, SUPERNOVAS CAN PLAY HOST TO AN IMMENSE QUANTITY OF RAW DARKNESS!” Doppler yelled back. “IN OTHER WORDS, THE DEATH OF THAT STAR JUST SPAWNED AN ENORMOUS – “

            It landed on the deck. Vaguely draconian in shape and twenty feet tall, it had six black limbs, and used four to dig its claws into the floor and the frontmost pair to reach out and swipe at the crewmen. At the end of a snakelike neck was a lizardlike head; all of its skin was jet-black. Parts of it, such as the abdomen, were covered in golden armor studded with fire-red gemstones. Its eyes were two pools of brilliant yellow.

            Sora, Riku, and Mickey all finished Doppler’s statement for him: “HEARTLESS!”

            The Heartless, which would later be documented as a “Magma Miser,” opened its maw to let out several spherical masses of flame.

            “REFLEGA!” all three Keybearers cried at once, putting out their blades. The resulting barrier knocked the balls of fire backward and into the air, toward the wave of flame from the supernova.

            “C’mon, fellas!” Mickey encouraged. “Let’s take that thing out!”

            “Get somewhere safe!” Riku yelled to Belle. The princess nodded and obliged, charging to the opposite side of the deck from the Miser. On that note, Riku turned back to the immense Heartless, raising his blade. Without a further announcement, he leapt, speeding toward it with a Dark Splicer attack that allowed him to come at it again and again, striking it in the armored chest. That didn’t seem to do much to the Miser itself, but it cracked the armor, and once that fell off, revealing the Heartless’ exposed underside – scaly, with red glowing in the cracks between the scales, as if its center were made of glowing-hot coals.

            “That should make this easier!” Mickey remarked. He leapt into the air, firing a Pearl spell at the Miser’s head. It struck, and the Heartless roared in agony; it had been dealt a fair amount of damage. In retaliation, it breathed a row of flames across the deck, setting the Legacy afire.

            “OHHHHH NO YA DON’T!” Mickey hit the ground and immediately began dousing the flames with magic, running alongside the path carved in flame and occasionally getting too close: “BLIZZAGA! BLIZZAGA! OOH-OW-HOTHOTHOTHOTHOT! BLIZZAGA! BLIZZAGA!”

            “Now this be a REAL challenge!” Silver laughed, equipping the cutlass blade of his arm. “HAVE AT YE, BEASTIE!” He rammed the blade into one of the Heartless’ central legs, causing the Miser to tip slightly off balance.

            “JIM!” Sora cried. “DO A LIMIT WITH ME!”

            “Do a WHAT?” Jim had no idea what Sora was talking about.

            “JUST FOLLOW MY LEAD!” Sora ran over to him. “FIRE WHEN I SAY!”

            “OKAY!” Jim agreed.

            The two of them began a dance, back to back. First, Sora would face the Miser and send a blast of Light energy directly at its exposed and glowing chest. Then he and Jim would quickly exchange places in a single movement, a quickstep, putting Jim at the proper angle to fire a shot at the same target. Round and round they went, light, bullet, light, bullet, until Sora, remembering a conversation he and Jim had once had about Jim’s proficiency with a solar surfer. Sora threw his Keyblade up into the air, transforming it into his personal skimmer, which was not unlike a red and gold surfboard in shape, meant to be ridden on while balancing on just the feet. It was an ability that Yen Sid had made sure to teach Sora and Riku in reflection of the Keybearers of old.

            “You know what to do!” Sora told Jim.

            Jim rode the skimmer as high as the top of the mast before turning and speeding down toward the Miser, pummeling it directly in the back with the edge of the vehicle. As he leapt off, the skimmer reverted to a Keyblade once more, and Sora caught it on a leap upward, slashing at the Miser from the opposite angle before backflipping through the air and landing next to Jim. This had done far more damage to the Miser, which staggered and shuddered, seemingly about to collapse.

            “WE DID IT!” Sora yelled in triumph.

            Before it could fall completely apart, the Miser opened its wide mouth again, this time breathing in instead of out. A small vortex appeared within its jaws, and only one thing was being pulled toward it. Sora and Riku were both stunned to see the munny crystals they’d accumulated levitating out of their pockets and flying right into the hungry maw. As soon as it had consumed one thousand of the currency, the Miser regained its balance.

            “It gets strength through MUNNY?” Sora cried in disbelief.

            The Miser’s first move since recovery was to spin a 360, hitting Silver square in the stomach with its tail. Silver was thrown over the railing of the boat.

            “SILVER!” In a blind panic, Jim raced to the place where he’d seen his companion fall.

            Over the side of the boat, Silver had jammed the blade of his arm into the Legacy’s boards, preventing himself from falling further. He was in the process of getting a grip on his lifeline with his biological hand. Jim immediately reached down to grab that arm, and with that additional anchor, Silver was able to jam the cutlass into higher and higher points on the wall until he was able to clamber back onto the deck.

            “Thanks, lad,” he breathed in sincere relief.

            Jim just gave him a relieved smile.

            Things weren’t going any better on the other parts of the deck. Doppler was safe from the Miser’s reach up at the helm, but he was privy to the view when the flare faded and retracted. This at first seemed like a reduction in the Legacy’s problems, but when the orange fire gelled into its new shape, he was filled with dread. “It’s…devolving into a…” He required a great gasp in order to force out the awful truth: “A black hole!”

            The great vortex in the sky pulled in all the debris and flame from the supernova, and it threatened to do the same to the Legacy, which found itself on an unplanned course toward oblivion.

            As the helmsman lost his struggle with the steering wheel, Amelia took it over with a growl of “Ohhhhh, no you DON’T!” She was barely able to pull it against the black hole’s gravity.

            Then the Legacy was rocked with an enormous shockwave that emitted from the hole. “Blast these waves,” Amelia grunted. “They’re so deucedly erratic!”

            “Captain, they’re not erratic at all!” Doppler called over from the dashboard, where he was taking readings from the black hole. “There’ll be one more in precisely 47.2 seconds!”

            “Of course!” Amelia’s face lit up. “You’re brilliant, Doctor! We’ll ride that last one out of here!”

            No sooner had all the sails been furled than Amelia ordered them unfurled again.

            “MR. HAWKINS!” Amelia called down. “MAKE SURE ALL LIFELINES ARE SECURED GOOD AND TIGHT!”

            “AYE, CAPTAIN!” Jim abandoned the Miser in order to double-check all of the ropes, tying them tightly.

            All the while, Sora, Riku, and Mickey kept the Miser at bay. “One last shot, fellas!” Mickey encouraged.

            The Miser opened up its mouth to absorb more munny.

            “NOW!” Sora yelled. “BEFORE IT GETS ANY STRENGTH BACK!” He tossed the Keyblade in a Strike Raid toward the Miser’s chest, catching it on the rebound only to throw it again. Mickey practically transformed into a spinning ball in the air, Keyblade out, to act as a living chainsaw cutting into the Miser through its back. Riku vaulted into the air, performing a single Zantetsuken slash on the dragonesque head.

            With one last shudder, the Miser dissolved, a single blood-red heart erupting from the shadows that had once composed it and disappearing into the aether.

            “LIFELINES ARE SECURE, CAPTAIN!” Jim called up to Amelia before leaving the mast alone. Scroop witnessed all this and thought back to his conversation with Maleficent. She’d been quite reasonable after all. She had given Scroop a single task and promised him an immense reward should he pull it off, and she’d even lent him quite a fair bit of Darkness in order to complete it. It was a task he had no qualms with, either. And it looked like he wouldn’t even need to use her extraneous powers after all. It was as simple as cutting a rope.

            The ship lurched as the black hole belched. Many of the crew stumbled, and some nearly fell overboard. It was Belle who actually did, and what a stroke of luck for Scroop! His job was half done for him!

            Belle was at first stricken with terror, afraid she was to fall to her death, but the tautening of the rope around her reminded her that she was still connected to the ship. She could pull herself up. As she started to do just that, she was unaware of Scroop leaning over the railing, grinning at her.

            “CAPTAIN!” Doppler screamed. “THE LAST WAVE!”

            Amelia looked up to see that a few men were struggling to open the last sail. “WE’RE NOT READY!” she cried.

            “I’M ON IT!” Sora yelled, transforming his Keyblade into a skimmer once more in order to ride up the mast. Balancing on the skimmer in midair, Sora lent his hand to the sail, getting it opened and shimmering once more.

            Scroop clicked his claw once before bringing it down and severing Belle’s lifeline.

            As Sora maneuvered to float back to the deck, he heard a faint scream. Turning to look in its direction, he saw Belle falling away from the ship, untethered, toward the black hole. “NO!” he screamed before severing his own lifeline and revving the skimmer into a direct course for the falling princess.

            By then, Scroop had scuttled out of sight, and Sora was none the wiser to his plan.

            Faster and faster and faster Sora made the skimmer go. Belle was nearly blind with terror, now believing that this was to be her end, and that she wouldn’t even get to tell Adam goodbye, but then Sora came speeding into her view. “Come on…” the boy muttered, nearly at pace with Belle. “Come onnnnnnnnn…”

            He swept behind her, catching her around the waist; she planted her feet firmly next to him on the skimmer. “GOTCHA!” Sora cried triumphantly.

            “Thank you!” Belle said breathlessly.

            “Hang on!” Sora steered the skimmer back up toward the Legacy. It was a bit awkward for two to ride on it, but they managed all the same.

            “HERE IT COMES!” Doppler screamed.

            “HOLD ON TO YOUR LIFELINES, GENTS!” Amelia yelled. “IT’S GONNA BE A BUMPY RIDE!”

            Riku rushed to the edge of the deck, seeing Sora and Belle flying toward the edge from a dangerously close proximity to the black hole. “SORA!” he cried in fear, reaching out a hand.

            “WE’RE OKAY!” Sora yelled back at him.

            Onboard, Silver held Jim tightly against the mast, shielding him with his own body.

            For a moment, the entire Legacy seemed about to be swallowed for good.

            Sora’s skimmer nearly touched the edge of the deck.

            Then came the wave.

            Brilliant and bright, it reignited the sails of the Legacy as the thrusters were kicked into gear. The ship was propelled a long ways away from where Pelusa once was, rocketing through Etherium space at unpredecented speed.

            Mickey held tight to Riku’s lifeline, which was doing the job of keeping Riku from flying off the ship after his feet left the deck. Riku had ahold of Sora’s hand, and Sora’s other arm was wrapped around Belle’s shoulders; by keeping a tight grip, they managed to keep the skimmer riding right alongside the Legacy on the shockwave. When the boat finally started to slow down, the skimmer docked, and Sora and Belle stepped onto solid floor once more; gravity then dropped Riku as well.

            “Sora – “ Riku quickly enveloped Sora in a tight embrace. He’d feared losing him many times before, but it never seemed to get any less harrowing to do so.

            “I’m okay.” Sora returned the hug fervently. “I knew I could count on you, Riku.” 

            The entire ship broke into celebration; the crew leapt up and down and cheered. Silver and Jim at last felt comfortable detaching themselves from the mast. Arrow mopped his forehead with his sleeve; that had felt far too close for comfort.

            Amelia strode regally down the stairs from the helm. “Well, I must congratulate you, Mr. Silver. It seems your cabin boy did a bang-up job with those life…lines…” She trailed off as her gaze maneuvered over Sora and Belle. “And what happened to you two?”

            “Her lifeline wassssss not ssssecure,” Scroop hissed, stepping forth. “I sssssaw it with my own eyessssssss. The boy had to improvisssssse to sssstop her from falling to her death.”

            “Is this true?” Amelia asked. “Did you fall?”

            “Yes…” Belle answered. “But it wasn’t because of my lifeline! It couldn’t have been! I saw Jim tie it with MY eyes!”

            Whispers surged through the crowd. Had Jim failed? Was he responsible?

            “Mr. Hawkins,” Amelia said sternly, glowering at Jim. “You realize that she could have perished.”

            “But…but I didn’t…I HAD them!” Jim stammered.

            “Couldn’t it have been an accident?” Sora asked. “What if the line just broke on its own?”

            “Nonsense,” Amelia told him. “These lines are reinforced. If her line BROKE, then it would have been an act of pure sabotage.”

            “Then maybe it was,” Riku suggested. There was a new stench onboard. Someone had acquired a veritable load of Dark magic, and Riku was willing to bet that the timing was no coincidence. “And I think it was HIM!” He pointed to Scroop.

            “Watch your accusssssationsssss,” Scroop hissed.

            “Why would Mr. Scroop try and murder Belle?” Doppler asked. “He doesn’t have any reason to!”

            “Maybe he didn’t need a reason,” Riku went on. “Maybe it came as an instinct. Or maybe it was part of a bigger play for power. But he stinks of Darkness in a way he didn’t before!”

            “Why you…” Scroop growled. He gave a glare at Silver.

            Silver got the message loud and clear. He’d taken too long, and Maleficent had found someone else to do her dirty work. If he didn’t step it up, it would be his lifeline cut next. For a moment, he felt fear.

            Then that fear evolved into something else. Excitement. Scroop hadn’t truly threatened him. He’d given him an excuse so that he didn’t have to play the game any longer.

            “Change in plans, lads,” Silver announced, looking not at Amelia, not at Doppler, not at Arrow, not at Jim, but at the other members of the crew.

            “Wha – “ Jim began.

             “We move NOW!” Silver hoisted the cutlass blade high.

            The rest of the crew produced guns and blades that Amelia hadn’t been aware they had, and most of them were pointed at Amelia, Doppler, Arrow, Jim, Sora, Riku, Mickey, and Belle.

            “What the DEVIL is going on?” Amelia cried angrily.

            “HOIST THE COLORS!” Silver commanded.

            “AYE-AYE!” The crewman in the crow’s nest threw the royal banner down. The others set about hoisting a new flag, rising behind Silver’s back, revealing his own true colors: black, embossed with a white skull and crossbones.

            “You…” Jim realized. “You TRICKED me! I TRUSTED you!”

            “An’ a fool you were for it!” Silver laughed.

            “I should never have let my guard down,” Riku added through gritted teeth. “I thought you were like me. I thought you learned from the Darkness. But you never put it behind you at all!”

            “Regretfully so,” Silver confirmed with a fake pout. “And even more regretfully, now we’ve got to get rid of the lot of ye. After all, they say dead men tell no tales, and ‘tis true. Ye’ve already taken us most of the way to Treasure Planet, after all.”

            “Treasure Planet?” Sora repeated. “What’s Treasure Planet?”

            “Ye didn’t know?” Silver laughed. “Seems yer new ‘friends’ ‘ave been keepin’ secrets! And now ye’ll never know.”

            “Oh yeah?” Sora braced his Keyblade. “Just TRY and take us!” Mickey and Riku held their blades in similar positions. Behind them, still shaking with disbelief, Jim drew his pistol.

            “Doctor,” Amelia hissed. She had withdrawn a higher caliber pistol than Jim’s from within her jacket, then another, keeping one in her hand as she passed the other to Doppler. “You have used one of these before, right?”

            “Well, I’ve read about – “ Doppler accidentally blasted a hole in the ground as he fumbled the trigger. “Er, no. No, I haven’t.”

            Arrow rolled his eyes as he brought out his own pistol.

            “So it’s a fight ye want, is it?” Silver taunted. “Then it’s a fight ye’ll get!”

            His cutlass blade clashed directly with Sora’s. Riku engaged one of the stronger pirates in a Dark Splicer; Scroop attempted to pounce Riku from behind, but Mickey swatted the arachnid pirate away before he could lay a claw on him. Jim, Amelia, and Arrow opened fire, keeping quite a few of the crew at bay. Doppler simply fired at random, which actually worked to his advantage; the pirates were far more afraid of getting hit by one of his errant bullets. Belle stood behind him, feeling utterly useless and helpless, not knowing what to do.

            “GET TO THE STATEROOM!” Amelia yelled. “DON’T LET THEM HAVE IT!”

            Hearing this, Jim took off immediately for Amelia’s stateroom.

            “Don’t let them have WHAT?” Sora wondered out loud.

            Inside the stateroom, Jim was faced with a large locked cabinet. He blasted the lock open with one burst from his pistol, removing a coppery sphere carved with intricate curving lines and inset with buttons of all sorts. As he held it in his hand, he was aware of the sudden appearance of Morph, who admired his reflection in the ball’s shine.

            “MORPH!” Jim swatted him aside. “GET OUTTA HERE!” He ran back out to the deck, pocketing the bronze device.

            Certain Jim had retrieved the invaluable object, Amelia announced, “To the longboats!”

            “Sorry about this, Silver,” Sora growled after parrying another blow from the newly self-crowned captain. “But you just earned THIS! GRAVIGA!”

            Silver suddenly felt the gravity around him increase enough to throw him to the deck, though only for a moment. By the time he got back up, he saw the retreating backs of Amelia, Doppler, Arrow, Jim, Sora, Riku, Mickey, and Belle.

            “AFTER THEM!” Silver bellowed, and the crew gave chase.

            The eight being chased headed belowdecks, to the longboat hangar. Amelia was the first to reach the door and pried it open, waving a hand to usher them through one by one. Doppler was last, and he momentarily tripped only to have Amelia forcefully grip the back of his jacket and throw him into the hangar. “THANK YOU!” he called back at her as she slammed and locked the hangar door. As soon as it was slammed shut, the door was assaulted from the other side: someone was using a torch to burn through the metal.

            “Quickly!” Amelia commanded. “Quickly now!”

            The hatch at the bottom of the hangar opened. They loaded up two to a longboat: Amelia and Doppler in one, Mickey and Belle in another, Sora and Riku in a third. Arrow waited for Jim in the last remaining longboat.

            As Jim made for the final seat, he was aware of his pocket lightening considerably. Morph had somehow slipped into the room with Jim unaware, and the tiny gelatinous critter seized the sphere in Jim’s pocket, flying it across the hangar.

            “MORPH, NO!” Jim immediately gave chase.

            At that moment, the door was entirely blasted in, and the crew burst through it. Roughly five pirates immediately turned their pistols on Amelia, who retrieved a larger rifle from the bottom of her longboat and returned fire. All were surprised when Doppler shot instead at one of the overhead pulley mechanisms, dislodging it from the ceiling and bringing it crashing down on the floor where the pirates stood, forming a gaping hole through which they all tumbled down into Etherium space.

            Amelia turned to Doppler with a coy smile. “Did you actually aim for that?” she teased.

            “You know, actually, I DID!” Doppler remarked, still unable to believe it himself.

            “We need to get moving!” Riku commanded.

            “Not without Jim!” Sora begged.

            “You lads go!” Arrow urged. “I’ll make sure Jim departs with me – “

            All of this was cut off by the sound of the hatch closing. Silver had gotten within the proper proximity of the control panel.

            “Aw, BLAST IT!” Amelia cursed.

            “You really think that’ll open the hatch…?” Sora pointed the Keyblade at the control panel, wondering if she’d meant with fire or thunder.

            “I don’t think she meant it literally - ” Riku began.

            “THUNDER!”

            Sora’s spell fried the control panel, and by some miracle, this got the hatch opening once more.

            Silver stared at the now unresponsive levers, trying a few. Before he could even begin to contemplate shooting Sora in the face for that, Morph zipped through his peripheral vision, clutching a shiny object. Silver didn’t need to activate his cyborg eye to be sure of what it was. He ran after Morph only to find Jim coming from the opposite direction. Silver was sure his pet would loyally come to him –

            Morph, feeling altogether too playful to show respect to anybody, dove into a coiled-up rope.

            Jim snatched the sphere out of the rope, glowering at Silver momentarily before hurrying toward Arrow’s longboat. Silver detached a relatively massive cannon from his robotic leg, affixing it to his arm, and aimed through the scope at Jim, ready to blast him to hell. And yet he faltered. He simply could not.

            Mickey and Belle’s longboat had descended and blasted off, and Sora and Riku were not far behind. Amelia and Doppler didn’t waste time unfurling the sail before simply letting their longboat drop; after Jim leapt into Arrow’s boat, Arrow did the same, gripping Jim tightly in one arm to secure him.

            Once all four longboats were airborne, one of Silver’s men on deck pointed the onboard cannon at boat after boat, trying to pick which would be the best target. “Which one of ye’ll rack me up the best score?” he laughed.

            “HOLD YER FIRE!” Silver interrupted. From there, it was impossible to see which boat was carrying Jim, and, by extension, the device he’d carried away with him. “WE’LL LOSE THE MAP!”

            He tried to wrench the cannon away, but it fired all the same, a hot chunk of pure energy rocketing down toward the longboats.

            “SCATTER!” Riku commanded. He, Mickey, Arrow, and Amelia all hurriedly worked the controls of their boats so as to avoid the laser ball. However, it hit home on the stern of Amelia and Doppler’s boat. Doppler, horrified, watched as Amelia cringed with pain; his second priority was to notice that the solar sail had been blown out and the rudder annihilated.

            “TAKE OURS!” Sora yelled, throwing his Keyblade into the air. It transformed into the red-and-gold skimmer, and he hopped onto it, levitating above the longboat. Riku manned the controls, bringing the longboat to Doppler and Amelia’s craft, which was swiftly falling.

            “Can you make it?” Doppler asked Amelia worriedly.

            “Of course!” Amelia grunted, her teeth clenched shut. “Don’t start doubting me now, Doctor!” She vaulted over the gap into Riku’s longboat, taking the controls from him. “Now follow me!”

            Doppler could see from there that a dark stain was spreading out on her jacket from the inside of it. He forced his worries down so he could prepare for making the jump.

            Riku then threw his Keyblade overboard, and it transformed into a skimmer more of the traditional sort, with a seat and handlebars. Its design was black and red, and featured two metal, batlike wings on the sides. Riku dropped over the side of the longboat and onto his skimmer. Amelia moved into the space he had occupied, not taking her hand off the controls, as Doppler made the leap. His stomach landed right on the railing, quite painfully, and he feared falling out into the boundless sky before Amelia dropped the controls momentarily to grasp him beneath the arms and hoist him into the boat.

            “Will you just let me drive?” Jim groaned to Arrow. “I can get us away faster!”

            “The situation is far too dangerous!” Arrow scolded. “Leave the piloting to me!”

            “He can do it.” Riku’s skimmer floated up next to Arrow and Jim’s craft. “I’ve seen him. Just give him a chance.”

            “All right.” Arrow handed the controls over to Jim. No sooner did he do that then his vessel shot forth at unprecedented speed, leaving the other two surviving longboats and the two Keyblade skimmers to attempt to catch up. The destroyed longboat drifted away, becoming debris that would never again be found.

            “No way,” Jim remarked under his breath. “We can’t be. We weren’t that close…”

            “Close to what?” Arrow asked. But by that time, they could all see it.

            “Captain!” Silver’s cannon man aboard the Legacy asked worriedly. “Should I continue firing?”

            “No.” Silver was overtaken with a sly grin. “We know where they’re going. Look ahead!”

            On the horizon, the atmosphere turned entirely green. Partially obscured behind dark clouds was a gleaming planet, almost emerald, ringed twice with debris.

            “What IS that place?” Sora asked Jim, pulling his skimmer parallel to the foremost longboat.

            “That,” Jim told him, “is Treasure Planet.”

 

END OF ACT II


	3. Act III

The longboats and skimmers descended over the planet, entering its atmosphere and sailing over a long expanse of forest filled with mushroom-esque trees. Only one landmark seemed to be visible on the horizon – a mountain with an enormous circular aperture carved into it – so Jim, Arrow, Amelia, Doppler, Mickey, Belle, Sora, and Riku made for it, hoping it would offer shelter and a vantage point to notice if any of Silver’s associates had followed them.

            The inside of the mountain turned out not to be, as expected, a hollowed-out cave of stone. The eight travelers walked into an immense chamber that was littered with piecemeal furniture, some broken, some not. Metal scraps and other junk was scattered about over the floor.

            “This looks like somebody’s house,” Sora observed. “You think someone lives here?”

            “I believe that depends on your take on the standard of living,” Doppler sniffed, kicking a tin can so that it rolled across the floor.

            “For all we know, could be abandoned,” Arrow remarked. “All I know is she’s all we’ve got.”

            Doppler then looked up and around at the domed walls and ceiling. “Those markings…” he muttered, looking at the pattern of intricate linked circles. “They’re just like the ones on the map!”

            “They look old,” Belle added. “Almost like some kind of writing. Maybe they’re the marks of a past civilization.”

            “Uh, guys?” Mickey interrupted. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but…”

            He pointed to where Amelia had collapsed onto her knees.

            “CAPTAIN!” Doppler rushed to her, kneeling next to her. “Captain, are you all right?”

            “I’m fine, I’m fine, don’t fuss,” Amelia replied, looking to him. “It’s only a scratch. Some bruising. What matters now is that we stick together and – “ She doubled over, clutching at her midsection. Doppler didn’t breathe until she moved again, craning her head up to look at him. “Doctor,” she said softly, “you have…wonderful eyes.”

            “SHE’S GONE CRAZY!” Doppler cried in panic.

            “Here!” Sora ran to Amelia’s side, offering her a Hi-Potion. “Drink this. It’ll help.”

            Amelia uncorked the small bottle, sniffing its lip cautiously before downing the whole thing in one swallow. It only took a few seconds for the Hi-Potion to have its effect. “That does feel much better,” she remarked, slowly standing up. “I do believe I’m right as rain, in fact. Thank you for that.”

            Doppler wiped his brow, which had become quite damp. He also stood, keeping an eye on Amelia to make sure she was steady.

            “I think it’s time you told us more about the reason we got on that ship in the first place,” Riku stated. “What’s Treasure Planet, and what does Silver want from it?”

            There was a long silence. If the words inside heads could be heard, the room would be filled with questions about trust, confidentiality, security, and secrets. At last, Amelia announced, “As it seems the information somehow already leaked into the worst possible hands, I can’t see much harm in telling the whole tale at this point. As it began with Mr. Hawkins, I believe it should be told by Mr. Hawkins.”

            Jim felt fourteen eyes upon him. It was almost enough to give him stage fright. “Okay,” he began. “Back on my home planet of Montressor, I was a real screwup. The less said about that, the better.”

            Riku nodded in understanding.

            “But one day, a ship crashed outside my family’s inn,” Jim went on. “There was a man inside. Billy Bones. He said he was running from a cyborg who was after him because of a map. A map to Treasure Planet.”

            “That’s why you asked Silver all those questions on the first day of the voyage!” Mickey realized.

            “Yeah,” Jim confirmed. “First, I thought it was him Bones was talking about. Then he convinced me it couldn’t have been. But now I know it was him the whole time. I can’t believe I TRUSTED him.” He blinked hard, forcing himself to continue the story. “I got the map to work by accident, and that’s how I found out this place was here. Everyone always thought Treasure Planet was a myth. It was supposed to be the place where Nathaniel Flint, the most infamous pirate in all of the Etherium, kept the loot of a thousand planets. It was the kind of thing you read about in storybooks. No one thought it was real!”

            “The things we read about can be true more often than people realize,” Belle commented. “And sometimes, the things that happen to us can be even more unbelievable than what we read.”

            Jim nodded. “Doppler and I put together this whole thing with the Legacy so we could find Treasure Planet and prove it WAS real. A treasure like that could have done so much good for my family. It was just…for once in my entire life, I thought I could do something RIGHT. And instead, I just screwed it all up even worse! Now we’ve got pirates after us, the person I thought I could trust is the one who wants to kill us, they’re connected to the Darkness, and the thing we came for is on the verge of falling into their hands. How many of you almost got KILLED because of me? Belle? Amelia?” By then, he was shouting.

            “It’s not your fault,” Sora told Jim, stepping forward. “Sure, things didn’t turn out like you thought, but at least you tried! The fact is that you WANTED to do things right, and you went to a lot of work for it! Silver fooled all of us. I wanna say if any of us should be blamed for this, it’s him. But…” He wondered if he should even continue. “I dunno. I kinda wonder if maybe he really did mean a lot of what he said and did when we thought he was our friend. I think he really was our friend for a while.”

            “That’s a laugh,” Jim snorted. “I wish I could believe that.”

            “Sometimes, people who get wrapped up in the Darkness get confused,” Sora went on. “They don’t know what’s more important: the thing they started using the Darkness to get, or the friends that show them the light.”

            “It’s true,” Riku offered. “I don’t know what to say about Silver anymore. I know I was used by people who let me think they were my friends when they really just wanted me to do their dirty work. But I also know I turned into the kind of person who would use other people that way, and I found my way back. When someone goes deep into the Darkness, there’s almost no way out. But it’s not impossible. I don’t know if Silver is more like me or like Maleficent. What I do know is that Dark and Light aren’t always black and white.”

            “So you’re saying I shouldn’t be MAD at him?” Jim raged. “He’s trying to KILL us right now!”

            “You have every right to be mad!” Mickey affirmed. “All three of you are right. We don’t know what’s goin’ on with Silver, and he seemed pretty sincere, but at the same time, he’s our problem now, and we gotta figure out how to fix things for ourselves!”

            “Can you show us the map?” Sora asked Jim.

            “Sure,” Jim answered. He reached into his pocket, digging around for it.

            He was interrupted by a loud cry of “AAAAAAH! WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING IN MY HOUSE?”

            Everyone turned to see a spindly robot of bronze, with two headlight-bright eyes, standing at the opposite end of the room.

            “Whoops,” Sora muttered. “Guess it wasn’t abandoned.”

            Belle, curious, approached the robot, looking him over. Seeing a cyborg hadn’t prepared her for the concept of an android. Unlike Silver, who had only filled in his missing pieces with metal, this man seemed entirely to be made out of mechanical parts that looked as though they would normally be inanimate. She asked what she thought was a logical question: “Are you enchanted?”

            “Am I?” the robot responded. “AM I EVER! ENCHANTED THAT ACTUAL CARBON-BASED LIFEFORMS HAVE COME TO RESCUE ME AT LAST!” He practically pounced on Jim, wrapping him in a tight hug.

            “I think he likes you!” Sora laughed.

            “WHAT?” Jim pried the android off him. “NO! We’re not here to rescue you from anything!”

            “We’re sorry we intruded on your home,” Belle told him. “We weren’t sure if anyone lived here. We’ll leave – “

            “LEAVE?” the robot was horrified by the prospect. “But I haven’t had guests in A HUNDRED YEARS! Please, please, PLEASE stay! Can I offer anyone a drink?” He drew back a cloth that was covering a cupboard of sorts, bringing out several cups of motor oil and other substances that looked toxic for human consumption.

            “Uh…no thanks!” Mickey said with a nervous scratch behind the ear.

            “Oh, this is the HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE!” The robot let the “drinks” tray clatter to the ground before rushing to hug Sora next. “I just want to hug each and every one of you!”

            “I like him!” Sora laughed, hugging the robot in return.

            “Why am I not surprised,” Jim sighed. Riku just found the whole situation amusing; of course Sora would find someone who made that loud of an entrance just delightful. It was one of the best things about Sora.

            “What did you think you needed rescuing from?” Belle asked.

            “I was marooned here!” the robot explained. “Left behind by my last friends! Not that I haven’t made the best of it. Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home! It’s just that sometimes, when you’ve spent hour after hour after hour after day after week after month with no one to talk to but yourself, YOU GO A LITTLE NUTS!” He shook his head. “Where are my manners? I am, uh…my name is…” Suddenly embarrassed, he clutched his head, trying desperately to remember what he was called.

            “At least he’s not trying to kill us,” Amelia whispered to Doppler. “If you ask me, that’s a step up from previous company.”

            “B.E.N.!” the android finally screamed. “Of course! I’m B.E.N.! Bio-Electronic Navigator. And you are?”

            “Leaving,” Jim groaned, making his way to the door.

            B.E.N. headed him off, somehow entrapping Jim’s hand in a handshake. “Pleasure to meet you, Leaving!”

            Amelia couldn’t hide a snort of laughter. Arrow rolled his eyes and heaved a sigh.

            “We don’t mean to be rude,” Riku broke in, “but we probably should find our own shelter.”

            “We’re sort of on the run from pirates,” Sora clarified.

            “Oh, PIRATES!” Ben moaned. “Don’t get me started on PIRATES! I don’t like them! I remember Captain Flint! That guy had SUCH a temper!”

            “Wait, wait!” Jim interrupted. “You knew Captain Flint?”

            “Of course!” Doppler realized. “Marooned a hundred years ago…”

            “And didn’t you say this place looked like Flint’s map?” Belle asked Doppler.

            “This must have been Flint’s personal navigation unit,” Doppler concluded, “discarded in order to secure the location of his trove!”

            “Flint’s trove,” B.E.N. repeated. “That reminds me of something, but I can’t remember what. It’s all a little fuzzy. Something about…” He began to twitch. “The…centroid of the mechanism…” His spasms became more erratic, and a set of loose wires at the back of his head sparked rapidly. “The centroid of the mechanism the centroid of the mechanism the centroid of the mechanism THE CENTROID OF THE MECHANISM – “

            Mickey whacked him over the head with the shaft of his Keyblade. That made the twitching and sparking stop.

            “Am I enchanted?” B.E.N. spurted. “Am I EVER! ENCHANTED THAT ACTUAL – “

            “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Sora put up his hands. “We already did that part.”

            “Did we?” B.E.N. asked sheepishly. “It gets kinda hard to tell these days. Y’know, ever since I LOST MY MIND! You haven’t seen it, have you?”

            “Not certain what I ever did in my life to deserve this,” Arrow muttered.

            “Well, we’ve seen a lot of things that lost their hearts,” Sora answered, “but no minds.”

            “I’m talking about my primary memory circuit.” B.E.N. pointed to the loose wires sticking out of his head.

            “Look, I’m sorry you lost your circuits,” Jim told him, “but we are REALLY in a tight situation here, so we’re just gonna be moving on.”

            “A fine decision,” Arrow concurred. “We wouldn’t want to drag anyone else into this mess anyhow.”

            “But thank you for letting us stay as long as we did,” Belle added politely.

            “Oh.” B.E.N. hung his head. “So…you’re just gonna go, then. Okay. I guess I’ll just…wait around here for another hundred years for someone else to show up. Good luck with the whole pirate thing, though!”

            “Aw…” Sora felt his heartstrings being tugged. “C’mon, guys, we can’t just leave him all alone again! Maybe he can help!”

            “You REALLY think I can help you?” B.E.N.’s head jerked right back up.

            “Sure I do!” Sora told him. “I dunno how yet, but things always work out better when we stick together!”

            Riku nodded. “Besides, it wouldn’t be fair to strand you here for another hundred years. If nothing else, we should help with that.”

            “Seriously?” Jim moaned. Then he let out a gravelly sigh. “Fine.”

            “This location does give us a good vantage point from which to observe the surrounding terrain,” Amelia reminded the group.

            “THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!” B.E.N. howled. “IF I HAD TEAR DUCTS BUILT IN, I MIGHT CRY!”

            “But on one condition,” Jim demanded. “You don’t hug me again. Or touch me. At all.”

            “Right-o!” B.E.N. confirmed. “No hugging! That is a big nix on the hugging front!”

            “You can hug me,” Sora told him with a shrug. “I don’t mind.”

            “Let’s take a look at that map first,” Riku decided.

            “Right.” Jim removed the bronze sphere from his pocket.

            “Hey, I recognize that thing!” B.E.N. crowed. “It looks like…it looks like…it looks like…it looks like…” His eyes flickered through images of several geometric shapes. His wires sparked again.

            Mickey whacked him on the head once more, and he settled back down.

            As Jim held up the map for the others to see, the smooth, cold metal suddenly shifted in his hands, becoming warm and gelatinous. It shifted shape completely into a little ball of pink with a pair of playful eyes.

            “It looks like Silver’s pet,” Sora observed.

            “MORPH!” Jim cried in horror. “WHERE’S THE MAP?”

            Morph transformed into two tiny levitating objects: a coil of rope and a miniature of the map. The sphere went inside the coil of rope, and Morph returned to his default shape.

            “IT’S STILL ON THE SHIP?” Jim cried. “SERIOUSLY? Could this GET any worse?”

            “Unfortunately, it already has,” Amelia informed him, standing at the entryway and looking out over the ground below the mountain. “Have a look.”

            The others gathered to see Silver approaching the mountain with a slew of pirates in tow.

            “We might be able to slither our way out of this yet,” Amelia commented. “After all, he likely targeted this location for its size. He’s no confirmation yet that we’re inside – “

            “You know those guys?” B.E.N. inferred. He began to jump up and down and wave: “HEEEEEEEY! YOUR FRIENDS WHO WERE RUNNING FROM THE PIRATES ARE UP HERE! DON’T WORRY! THEY’RE OKAY!”

            “NOW they do,” Jim groaned.

            “Those are the pirates, aren’t they?” B.E.N. realized.

            Said pirates opened fire. Sora and Riku rushed to the entryway to cast a Barrier that reflected all of the laser bullets right back at them, and Jim leaned around them to fire his own salvos into the fray. With Jim’s fire plus their own bullets ricocheting back at them, the pirates lowered their guns and backed hastily away.

            This, however, made room for Silver to stride in front of them. He bore no weapon. “HELLOOOOOOO UP THERE!” he called out.

            Sora, Riku, and Jim watched as he took out a makeshift white flag of surrender patched from some pale cloth and a twig. “If it’s all right with the captain, I’d like a word witcha!”

            “It most certainly is not all right,” Amelia huffed.

            “No tricks!” Silver went on. “I simply want to work out an agreement for the map, ‘tis all!”

            “We need to come up with a plan,” Riku mused. “I don’t know if we’re in any shape to fight them head-on right now.” Or if he wanted to truly fight Silver to grievous injury or death in front of Jim, but he kept that to himself.

            “I…don’t think we need to,” Belle realized. “He wants to talk about getting the map from us.”

            Realization dawned on everyone inside the cavern. “That means…he thinks we still have it!” Jim grinned triumphantly. “It’s still on the Legacy! We can go get it!”

            “But how are you going to do that without Silver noticing?” Doppler asked. “And what are we supposed to do with him in the meantime?”

            “I can stall him if you can find a way to get back to the Legacy,” Belle offered.

            “You could always use the back door,” B.E.N. suggested.

            “What back door?” Sora asked.

            B.E.N. responded by rolling over a large spherical structure set in the floor of the cavern. “I get the most delightful breeze through here,” he explained.

            Sora and Jim ran toward it to look down a circular hatch and take in a view of a maze of pipes, wires, and circuitry. “Whoa,” Jim gasped. “What is all this stuff?”

            “You mean the miles and miles of machinery that run through the course of the inside of this entire planet?” B.E.N. clarified. “Not a clue!”

            “This is our ticket out of here!” Sora realized.

            “The fewer of us leave to retrieve the map, the better,” Arrow suggested. “Too many of us disappear and Silver will notice.”

            “Well, I’m going,” Jim insisted. “I started this mess. Now I’m gonna clean it up.” Without waiting for approval, he leapt into the hatch, sliding down into the labyrinthine machinery.

            “WAIT FOR ME!” B.E.N. cannonballed after him.

            Sora turned back to the others and shrugged. “I wanna go too. There might be Heartless, or something even worse. Jim’s gonna need a Keyblade on his side.”

            Riku nodded. “I’ll stay here and make sure things don’t get out of hand with Silver. We need a Keyblade on this side too.”

            “Make that two,” Mickey chimed in.

            “I shall oversee negotiations,” Amelia offered, “or at least the semblance of them. Doctor, Mr. Arrow, Mr. Mouse, and Riku. If you could remain here and secure this mountain as a stronghold, should anything go wrong – “

            “We’ve got it under control!” Mickey replied with a salute.

            Sora leapt after Jim and B.E.N., falling down the tunnel beneath the planet’s surface.

            “I’ve a feeling things are going to be a lot quieter around with those three gone,” Arrow observed.

 

* * *

 

            Silver had expected Jim himself to descend the mountain in order to talk to him. He was quite surprised to see Belle and Amelia instead.

            “Why, cap’n!” Silver bowed dramatically. “What a surprise!”

            “I’m certain it is,” Amelia said coldly. “I’m sure you thought me quite dead after your little stunt with that laser cannon. The big surprise to me is that you still respect the formality of my title.”

            “Course,” Silver said innocently. “We may’ve gotten off on the wrong foot – “

            “An understatement,” Amelia interrupted.

            “But you ‘n’ me, we’re both reasonable folk an’ sailors of the Etherium, are we not?” Silver went on. “And furthermore, despite all this fightin’, we’re after the same thing.”

            “What ARE you after?” Belle asked Silver.

            “Why, the map, o’course,” Silver told her. “The path to Flint’s trove.”

            “And how did cutting my lifeline get you any closer to it?” Belle pressed.

            “Why, er…well, as you recall,” Silver explained, “that was the work of Mr. Scroop. That one’s a loose cannon. Can’t keep tabs on ‘im. We weren’t to reveal our intentions until much later, but ‘e just had to jump the gun!”

            Belle was sure Silver was leaving out something important. It also made her uneasy that of the pirates surrounding him, Scroop was not among them. Where was he? “And how were you going to reveal your intentions?” she asked. “By the same violent mutiny? How can you expect us to work together peacefully when you’re the one who started the violence?”

            “Er…” Silver glanced away momentarily before facing Belle once more, confidence restored. “I’ll admit mistakes have been made. After all, when ye’re a pirate, sometimes ye forget that ye can get whatcha want in an easier manner than mutiny!”

            “Don’t try to act like you want to share the map with us,” Belle insisted. “You just want it for yourself. And we’re not giving it to you.”

            “Oh, yer not, are ye?” Silver raised the brow over his mechanical eye, which glowed a bright red. “Perhaps there’s no terms what can get you to share the map. No reward we can offer. Not much to offer anyway without the treasure! But ye realize that there’s a lot we can take away from ye. An awful lot. How many of ye came here, again? An’ how many d’ye think will leave alive if we don’t get what we want?”

            Amelia placed her hand protectively on the pistol in her coat. She’d assigned Arrow, Riku, and Mickey to keep watch and intervene should violence break out. It wasn’t that she didn’t think Doppler would be good for it; she wanted to keep him away from as much disaster as she could. He’d already been through far too many a harrowing situation because of her.

            “All right,” Belle relented. “We’ll talk. But we have conditions on our side as well.”

            Silver let out a full-sounding laugh. “An’ what makes ye think ye can make demands, lass?”

            “You’ve seen our Heartless extermination team,” Belle reminded him. “You saw what they did to the thing that came from the black hole.”

            Silver was forced to consider it. He had an army, but nothing as strong as a Magma Miser. “Go on,” he grunted.

            “First of all,” Belle demanded, “I want your word that none of us will be hurt if we follow your orders.”

            She just had to keep him talking long enough. Then, when given a signal to know that Sora, Jim, and B.E.N. had returned with the map, she would firmly deny all terms with Silver and return to the mountain. The team might have to avoid more gunfire, but they could easily use the back door of B.E.N.’s mountain to slip away and beat Silver to Flint’s treasure.

 

* * *

 

            Jim and Sora battled a few hordes of small Heartless in the woods on the way to the Legacy. B.E.N. was little help in the way of combat, but excellent moral support, at least in Sora’s eyes. Jim saw it more as noise pollution.

            Once they found where the Legacy levitated far above the planet, Sora transformed his blade into a skimmer and the trio loaded up onto it as comfortably as they could for the short flight up to the ship. They disembarked upon the deck as quietly as they could, which wasn’t very, given the loud CLUNK B.E.N. made when he hit the boards.

            “You should probably stay here,” Jim told B.E.N. “Sora and I will go get the map.”

            “Righty-o!” B.E.N. saluted. Then: “On second thought, I should probably defuse the laser cannons.”

            “Wait, B.E.N. – “ Jim’s pleas were in vain; B.E.N. had already dropped down a hatch and was rolling off into the bowels of the ship, singing, “Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me!”

            “Well, at least the place seems abandoned,” Sora remarked.

            “I wouldn’t count on it,” Jim warned. “Let’s just hurry.”

            The pair took two steps forward and were intercepted by something else. Someone scuttled slowly up from belowdecks on his spindly legs, clutching a familiar object, shining as it entered open air, in his claw.

            “Looking for thisssss, cabin boy?” Scroop mocked.

            Immediately, Sora’s Keyblade was in his hand. “Give us the map now, or we’ll have to take it from you!”

            “Sssssuch threatssss,” Scroop hissed, following it up with a throaty laugh. A Dark aura formed around the edges of his body, like black flame. As Scroop thrust out his free claw, a burst of Dark Firaga blasted from it, headed right for Sora.

            Sora dodged to the left and Jim to the right. Jim drew his pistol, firing three rounds upon Scroop. Scroop responded by blocking all three with a transparent energy shield around his claw while he backed up to the mast, beginning to climb up it.

            “Oh, no you don’t!” Sora yelled, leaping up at him to slash with the Keyblade. “Take THIS!”

            As Sora leapt up, Scroop jumped down to tackle him. The Keyblade smacked Scroop in the face, but that didn’t deter Scroop from pinning Sora to the deck hard, slamming him down with a shockwave of Darkness. Before Sora could struggle away, Scroop had slashed at his body several times with the claw, leaving fierce scratches.

            Sora’s shoe planted hard into Scroop’s chest, fending him off momentarily. But Scroop took advantage of the opportunity to spin and slam his claw into the boards, sending a rush of Darkness bursting up from the floor and headed right before Jim. A surge of it formed below Jim’s feet and threw the youth off balance and off his feet.

            Scroop returned to his vantage point halfway up the mast and fired off a salvo of Dark Firagas; Sora hurried to get out of the way of them, but Scroop was faster, already proficient in the powers Maleficent had bequeathed upon him, and Sora soon found himself lying on the floor as well after taking a particularly bad hit.

            “And thisssss wasssss the legendary Keybearer,” Scroop chuckled. “Ssssso weak.”

            Sora knew both he and Jim were hurt badly. He could feel it all over his body. Neither of them had expected Scroop to have that much power. Sora wasn’t sure if his magic could hold out for enough Curagas to even keep Jim and himself on their feet long enough to retrieve the map from Scroop. However, he knew someone else who was much better at healing. He fumbled at his pocket in order to retrieve a Summon charm from several worlds before. The charm was round and white, like a pearl, with two black dots set into it and connected by a perfectly horizontal line.

            “Too easy,” Scroop muttered before leaping once more; as he landed, a great shockwave of Darkness blasted out from him, jolting both Sora and Jim. Jim was blasted across the deck, falling still where he lay. Sora took the opportunity to roll further away, then stagger to his feet, activating the Summon charm.

            A device like a rectangular charger, the size of a thick briefcase, appeared at Sora’s feet. From within, something pure white began to inflate like a balloon. As it took shape, it was clear it was not a balloon, but instead a robot encased in a synthetic white skin, with a cushion of air beneath to make him look nonthreatening while being durable and flexible. His final shape, when he was done inflating, was overall rounded, with stubby limbs. The charger disappeared once it was no longer needed.

            “I am Baymax,” the robot introduced. “Your personal health care companion. How are you doing today, Sora?”

            “Not good!” Sora replied urgently.

            “I am detecting several abrasions to the skin, as well as shallow punctures and a rib fracture,” Baymax observed. “On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?”

            “Seven for me,” Sora answered. He pointed to Jim, who still hadn’t gotten up. “I’m guessing a ten for him!”

            “Dispensing Curaga,” Baymax announced. Putting out both arms, he cast the healing spell on both Sora and Jim, surrounding them in green auras.

            “Wha…” Jim peeled himself off the deck. “I feel great!”

            “Thanks, Baymax!” Sora said with a thumbs-up, feeling rejuvenated.

            “Is there anything else I can do for you today?” Baymax asked.

            “Yeah,” Sora told him, pointing to Scroop. “Stop him from hurting us even more!”

            Baymax’s head flicked toward Scroop; he blinked quizzically. Scroop snarled before charging the robot.

            Instantly, red armor materialized over Baymax, including thick gauntlets. The android lifted one arm, and one of the gauntlets took off on a miniature rocket thruster, blasting into Scroop, catching the pirate off guard and slamming him hard against the mast.

            “WHY YOU…” Scroop forced the rocket fist away, freeing himself. He threw another round of Dark Firaga; Baymax blocked it with his chest, and the spell was rendered harmless.

            Knowing that his Summons only had so much time to stay on the field, Sora yelled, “BAYMAX! We need that map! The shiny thing in his claw!”

            “Will retrieving the map improve your physical and/or mental state?” Baymax asked calmly.

            “You bet it will!” Sora affirmed.

            Baymax went on the offensive, throwing punch after punch, kick after kick at Scroop. Scroop was easily able to sidestep the first few, but Baymax picked up speed, hitting faster and faster, and Scroop was caught completely off guard by first an uppercut to the jaw and then a roundhouse kick to the chest. He lost his grip on the map; the shining sphere rolled across the boards to where Jim hurriedly scooped it up and placed it securely in his pocket.

            All of a sudden, Sora, Jim, Baymax, and Scroop found themselves lifted off the deck. “B.E.N.!” Jim groaned. “He must have messed up the artificial gravity!”

            “Hold on!” Sora called up his skimmer, balancing upon it. Before he could steer it around to Jim, he was knocked off kilter by a burst of Dark Firaga.

            “Dispensing Curaga,” Baymax announced, and Sora once more felt whole. Jim, on the other hand, was not so lucky. Scroop was able to reach out and scratch him right across the chest, eliciting a scream of pain.

            “Dispensing Curaga.”

            Jim was once more healed.

            Sora put two and two together. “JIM!” he yelled. “STOP FIGHTING BACK!”

            “WHAT?” Jim was flabbergasted.

            “JUST DO IT!”

            “Heh heh heh…” Scroop didn’t know why Sora had given the order, but he’d just made both boys easy prey. And now he had both claws free. He launched a wave of Darkness that careened through the air, practically knocking both Sora and Jim unconscious. But with Baymax “dispensing Curaga” again, the effect was soon negated. Again and again Scroop tried to attack, only to be immediately countered by Baymax’s healing.

            “BAYMAX!” Sora yelled. “GET JIM AND ME TO THE DECK, NOW!” He pointed to Jim, realizing he’d never referred to him by name. “THAT GUY!”

            “I shall return you to the deck of the ship.” Baymax reached out with his right arm to grab Sora around the waist and his left to grab onto Jim. Holding them both tight, he turned to face downward. A pair of bright red metal wings extended from his back, and rocket thrusters in his legs engaged. Baymax flew downward as fast as he could until he was hovering over the deck.

            “I cannot safely land,” he announced. “This surface lacks the proper gravity.”

            “Just wait!” Jim told Baymax. “B.E.N. will fix it!” He sighed. “I hope…”

            When Sora had given Baymax the order to return to the deck, he had waited until they were all floating far above the mast. Scroop attempted yet another Dark spell, but his targets were out of range, and the magic dissipated in empty air. He scowled, he growled…

            He realized he had floated far above the Legacy’s mast. There was literally nothing he could hold onto anymore. Space had him. And though he was quick to master the offensive spells Maleficent had given him, he hadn’t the faintest of how to even begin to muster up a Corridor.

            As he spiraled away into the void, he screamed, and that was the last anyone heard of Scroop.

            Thankfully, B.E.N. did in fact know how to repair the gravity; Baymax, Jim, and Sora hit the deck with a hard THUNK. After all were back in an upright position, Sora, knowing Baymax’s Summon time was up, put out a balled-up fist.

            Baymax recognized the gesture. He tapped his own armored fist against Sora’s gloved one. “BATALATALATALA!” Sora and Baymax said in unison; the former punctuated this with a laugh. Then Baymax disappeared, becoming nothing more than a Summon charm for the time being.

            “What WAS that?” Jim asked in awe. “I’ve never seen a robot like that before!”

            “That was Baymax,” Sora answered, folding his arms proudly. “A good friend and a really great nurse!”

            “You gonna tell me where you found him?” Jim asked.

            “Let’s just say my friends and I do a lot of our own traveling,” Sora answered. “You can find just about anything if you go far enough.”

            “You think I could get in on traveling wherever it is you all go someday?” Jim asked. “Y’know, if we survive this.”

            Sora nodded enthusiastically. “Definitely!”

            B.E.N. skidded onto the deck, covered in wires of all colors. “LASER CANNONS DEFUSED!” he announced. “And, uh, sorry about that whole ‘loss of gravity’ thing. But it looks like you two didn’t run into too much trouble up here! Man, you guys shoulda seen that mess of a circuitboard! And all you had to do was get one little map! You guys had the EASY job!”     

            Before Jim could even open his mouth to complain, Sora was laughing. “How was that FUNNY to you?” Jim asked before finding himself caught up in his own smile. “Okay. Maybe that was a little funny.”

            “Did I miss something?” B.E.N. asked.

            Jim removed the map from his pocket to show his companions. “The important thing is we got what we came for.”

 

* * *

 

 

            “We got the map!” Sora announced as he climbed up the hatch into B.E.N.’s cavern. B.E.N. and Jim eagerly followed. “We got the – “

            The trio stopped short. Riku, Mickey, Amelia, Doppler, Belle, and Arrow were bound and gagged with thick strands of pure Darkness and lined up against the wall. Silver’s crew stood guard over them. In the middle of the room, with his back to them, was Silver himself, flanked by a throng of Pirate Heartless.

            “Fine work, lads,” the pirate captain said as he turned to face them. “Fine work indeed.”

            The Keyblade appeared rapidly, and Sora braced it, but Silver waggled a metal finger. “Ah, ah! Wouldn’t want anythin’ bad to happen to yer friends now, would ye?”

            One of the other pirates pressed the barrel of a laser pistol to Riku’s head. Riku tried to yell something, perhaps for Sora not to worry about him, but it was muffled by the Darkness bound over his mouth.

            “Just give us the map, will ye?” Silver asked. “Yer friend was very persuasive in tryin’ ta convince us we could work somethin’ out…too bad she didn’t realize that while I kept her talkin’, the Heartless were a-swarmin’ into this very mountain.”

            Belle’s eyes betrayed that she felt utterly devastated.

            “Now be good lads an’ hand it over.” Silver extended his hand.

            “And how do we know you won’t hurt them even if we do give you the map?” Sora snapped.

            “Ye don’t,” Silver said with a grin. “But if ye don’t give it to me, ye’re basically lettin’ me kill ‘em.”

            Sora slowly turned to Jim. “Give it to him,” he moaned.

            His face a mask of stone, Jim planted the map in Silver’s hand.

            “Yer just like me, Jimbo,” Silver taunted, staring Jim right in the eye. “Ya hates to lose.” He backed off a few steps, palming the map. He pressed a few of its buttons, twisted it, shook it. It made no response. Silver began switching out for various tools in his arm, pincers and clamps, trying each one against the map. Still nothing.

            Jim smirked proudly.

            Silver finally, begrudgingly handed it over to Jim. Jim only needed the span of two seconds to give the map the right combination of twists, turns, and taps. Green particles of light energy spilled out from its cracks, forming a diagram of Treasure Planet in the air.

            “Whoa…” Sora gasped.

            The miniature planet collapsed on itself, transforming into a hieroglyph-studded line of green light that zipped out the door, marking out a pathway to another location somewhere on the planet.

            “Bind ‘em with the Darkness,” Silver ordered not his regular crewmates but the Heartless. “And put ‘em with the others until – “

            The green light was suddenly extinguished. Jim had closed the map, staring at Silver defiantly. “You want the map,” he explained, “you take us too.”

            Silver only needed a moment to weigh his options. “So be it,” he said at last.

 

END OF ACT III


	4. Act IV

The longboats coursed along the pulsating green line that denoted the route to the fabled treasure. The first one contained Silver, his legion of Heartless, and Jim. The second was piloted by one of the pirates and contained the hostages; now Sora and B.E.N. were also bound by Darkness. The third contained the rest of Silver’s crew.

            When the trees got too thick to sail through, Silver ordered the boats to land. The hostages all had ankles unbound so they could walk, making it easier for the crew to track them. Here, the green line seemed to be brighter than before.

            “I smell treasure!” Silver crowed as he used his cutlass blade to hack through the branches and carve a path, following the emerald light. “Trust me, we are on the verge of – “

            He was cut off when he emerged from the tree line. The green line led right up to the edge of a cliff that dropped off sharply. And there it ended.

            “Wh…where…” Silver rounded on Jim. “Where is it?”

            “I don’t know!” Jim moaned as the green light extinguished itself. He tried in vain to restart the map. “I’m trying everything – “

            “Well, try harder!” Silver growled. “If ye don’t get that thing workin’ again…” He looked to the Pirate Heartless.

            One Air Pirate took that as a signal to go. It pounced on Jim’s back, knocking him to the ground.

            “NOT YET, YE BLASTED CREATURES!” Silver grabbed the Air Pirate’s neck with his organic hand and shook it violently.

            For Jim, however, falling was a stroke of luck, for now he saw the semispherical indent, engraved with hieroglyphics, carved into the rock below him. It looked just about the right size, shape, and pattern to accommodate the map. Gingerly, he lowered the bronze sphere into it.

            This ignited a massive system; first, an electric green sphere of light, transparent enough that one could see a myriad of tinier green objects floating in it, rose up to hover above the map, about five times its size. Then, green lights pulsated through the ground, radiating outward from where the map had been inserted. An enormous beam of lime stretched upward into the air from the bottom of the cliff; then the bottom of it split, forming an expanding triangle. When it was done, the triangle acted as a rift through which a new sight was visible: a sea-blue nebula studded with stars.

            “The Lagoon Nebula?” Jim identified.

            “But that’s…halfway ‘cross the galaxy!” Silver was awestruck. And he wasn’t the only one. Not a single soul present wasn’t amazed by the sight.

            Now curious, Jim looked down at the light sphere. The objects floating in it formed a pattern. He was looking at a diagram of the Etherium itself and all of the planets in it. Tentatively, he poked a finger in, lightly touching a locale.

            The triangle closed, then opened again, now offering a view of a row of violet space stations hovering before twilight-colored sky. Another transformed the scene beyond into a desertscape where howling winds coursed sand over oddly shaped rocks that jutted up from the earth. Yet another showed Crescentia, as though the distance between there and here was not so great after all.

            “So that’s how Flint did it!” Jim cried. “He used this portal to roam the universe, stealing treasure!”

            “But where did he stash it all?” Silver shoved Jim aside, poking at the diagram, opening door after door after door. “Where’s…that…blasted…TREASURE?”

            Jim was aware of B.E.N. struggling and making a fuss against his Dark ropes. The wires at the back of his head were sputtering again. Jim remembered what B.E.N. had said on the subject.

            “The centroid of the mechanism,” he recalled. B.E.N.’s back door had led beneath the planet’s skin, revealing that it was more metal than earth. “What if this entire planet…IS the mechanism? And the treasure is buried at the center of the planet!”

            “But how in blue blazes are we supposed to GET there?” Silver practically roared.

            “Just…open the right door,” Jim informed him, reaching into the diagram to touch the icon that represented Treasure Planet itself.

            The triangular portal opened wide, showing an enormous cavern with metal walls. Silver gingerly approached the threshold, beckoning for his crew to follow. The hostages were pushed along and into the area. Jim could easily have slipped away, been forgotten after all the excitement over the treasure, but he wasn’t about to abandon his new friends…and part of him still felt as though this was his discovery: the one thing he’d done right in his life. He had to see it through.

            Inside the mechanism, at the very core of Treasure Planet, the group was treated to a vista of gold, jewels, and other valuables, stretched out as far as the eye could see. “The loot of a thousand planets,” Silver remarked in awe.

            The other pirates gave whoops of joy and plunged into the ocean of riches, scooping up whatever they could. Realizing that left him no pirates to guard the hostages, Silver turned instead to his Heartless. “Make sure they don’t move an inch!” he barked, and the Pirates and Air Pirates surrounded Sora, Riku, Mickey, Belle, Amelia, Doppler, Arrow, and B.E.N., forcing them to remain in wait by the portal. Once he was sure they were secured, Silver let his guard down, wading into the golden and sparkling landscape.

            Jim turned to face his bound friends. “I’m sorry,” he sighed. “Sorry I couldn’t save you.”

            If Jim was sorry, Belle was sorrier. She had let Silver’s Heartless take them unaware on her watch. And what was more, she’d been nothing but useless for the entire journey. Now she was paying that price. She wished for nothing more than a way to be able to free her friends from captivity. She was able to turn her head just enough to look at them all. Sora, who always gave hope and light to everyone he met. Riku, who pushed his limits in order to do the right thing. Mickey, lover of a good laugh and loyal to the end. Dr. Doppler, enthusiastic and goodhearted. Amelia, straightforward and protective of her own. Arrow, a rock of stability in troubled times. B.E.N., an eager host who’d made the best out of a lonely lot. And then there was Jim: the one who was still free, but a captive all the same. After all the bravery, heart, and cleverness he had shown, Belle believed more than ever he deserved to realize his dream. These friends, new and old, filled her with love, and that love made her want to protect them all the more. It built up inside of her, a warm feeling. They didn’t deserve this! If they were free, then they’d show Silver what was what!

            That was when Belle realized that the feeling growing within her was more than just an emotion. It was true magic. It surged within her, and she realized all she had to do was let it out.

            Radiating from her heart, the white Light pierced the bonds and broke the Darkness that held the hostages in place in one bright flash.

            “BELLE!” Sora cried. “How’d you DO that?”

            “I don’t know!” Belle replied happily. “I just thought about how much I loved all of you and wanted to protect you, and…it’s like what happened when the other Princesses of Heart and I faced Ansem at Radiant Garden!”

            “Perhaps we can discuss the particulars later?” Doppler suggested, gesturing to the Pirate Heartless that were advancing, none too happy about their prisoners being free.

            “Right!” Sora looked to Riku, who gave him a nod. “We’ll take care of this!”

            In a few blade strokes, the Heartless were disposed of.

            “If I may propose a suggestion,” Amelia said softly. “We can vacate the premises and reclaim the Legacy using one of the spare longboats.”

            “And just leave Silver here?” Sora asked.

            “If you ask me, exile on a planet this large is far better than the prison cell that would await him if we arrested him,” Amelia reminded him. “Be glad that I’m willing to go against the book in this case.”

            “Wait…” B.E.N. interrupted. “Something about this is…familiar. I remember…something. No, WAIT! …I don’t. I think?”

            “That sounds like something important,” Sora pointed out. “I’m…not sure we should leave just yet.”

            “Me either,” Riku agreed. “I couldn’t tell at first with so much Darkness surrounding us…but even after Belle got rid of it, the smell didn’t go away. There’s Darkness here in this planet’s core.”

            “All the more reason to get AWAY from it!” Doppler hissed.

            Riku shook his head. “We have to know what it is. This scent is…familiar. I don’t like it. But it’s probably going to answer a few questions.”

            “And you?” Amelia turned to Jim.

            “This…is what I came for,” Jim told her. “I’m not leaving empty-handed.”

            “And YOU?” She turned next to Belle.

            “If there’s Darkness and danger here,” Belle emphasized, “I want to be here to protect them. Now that I know I can.”

            “Mr. Mouse.” Amelia turned to Mickey. “Surely you don’t agree with this foolishness.”

            “Somethin’s fishy about all this,” Mickey told her. “I think we gotta figure out what it is that B.E.N. remembers, and why Riku thinks this all smells so familiar! Besides, we haven’t opened a new path yet. There’s still somethin’ we gotta do in this world!”

            “New path?” Doppler repeated in confusion.

            “It’s kinda hard to explain,” Mickey told him. “We’ll fill you in on the details later.”

            “This is to do with that star shard business, isn’t it?” Amelia guessed.

            “You got it!” Mickey confirmed.

            “Very well.” Amelia nodded, then turned to Arrow. “Mr. Arrow…”

            “I’m not going to linger here longer than I need to,” Arrow told her. “I say that you, the doctor, and I retrieve the Legacy as you planned, then bring it back here as a means of evacuation for the others once they’ve completed whatever errands they have yet to do.”

            “Brilliant, Mr. Arrow!” Amelia said happily. “Let’s be off at once!”

            She, Doppler, and Arrow charged back through the portal, back into the forest, to find the parked longboats.

            “So where do we start?” Sora asked the remaining group.

            “Uh…I…uh…” B.E.N.’s eyes flickered toward a small ship half sunken in the mass of gold coins.

            “That remind you of somethin’?” Mickey asked.

            “I…I don’t know.” B.E.N. sounded dazed.

            “Let’s check it out,” Jim suggested. He beckoned, and B.E.N. and Mickey followed him toward the ship.

            “You know where the Darkness is coming from, don’t you?” Sora asked Riku.

            Riku nodded. “There.” He pointed toward Silver.

            “I thought we knew that already,” Belle told him.

            Riku shook his head. “The scent. It’s not his. It’s stronger. It’s more like…”

            From afar, they all saw the Corridor open behind Silver. 

            Silver knelt in the mass of coins and gems, letting them run through the fingers of both hands, mechanical and organic. “I can’t believe it,” he murmured to himself. “After all these years…a lifetime of searchin’…I can see it…I can touch it…an’ it’s mine at last…”

            He made sure to pocket a few handfuls in his coat, particularly one vibrant green gemstone that he knew would be worth a pretty penny.

            The voice pierced his reverie: “I seem to recall you making me a promise, John Silver. If you had not given me what I desired by the time Flint’s treasure was in your hands…”

            Silver’s blood ran cold. He twisted about to see Maleficent towering over him. “Yer evilness…” he gasped.

            “I am disappointed, Silver,” Maleficent stated coldly. “Were I simply observing from afar, I would respect your treachery. You’ve claimed your reward and left me quite empty-handed.”

            “But I lined ‘em up for ye, didn’t I?” Silver sputtered. “Bound an’ gagged them, all ready for ye to do what ye wish with ‘em!”

            “Is that so?” Maleficent countered.

            Right on time, Sora’s voice called out: “MALEFICENT!”

            Maleficent gracefully turned to face Sora, Riku, and Belle; Silver stood to full height.

            “It was you,” Riku stated. “You were behind this all along. You were the one manipulating Silver and getting him to toy with us.”

            “You give him such little credit,” Maleficent replied coyly. “I merely fanned the flames of Darkness already present within his heart.”

            “You were the one who gave all that Darkness to that spider guy, too!” Sora realized. “Weren’t you?”

            “Scroop was far less clever,” Maleficent replied. “He merely served to provide motivation for Silver when he faltered. Silver was the one who thought to deceive you. I merely gave him a goal and a reward. A reward that I am about to claim: the extinguishing of several of the Lights, as well as one of the Princesses of Heart.”

            “No way!” Sora insisted. “We’ve beaten you before, and we’ll beat you again!” His Keyblade appeared, as did Riku’s. Belle clenched her hands into fists, ready to call upon the magic inside her once more.

            Upon hearing this, Maleficent began to laugh. The laugh grew in ferocity until she was throwing back her head, crowing her mirth to the ceiling.

            “WHAT’S SO FUNNY?” Sora roared.

            Maleficent forced herself to calm down. “You all know so little of the planet in which you stand!” she informed them. “Once Flint’s work is completed, then the only one to survive shall be me!”

            “Flint’s…work?” Sora repeated, encountering a sinking feeling in his stomach.

            In the meantime, Mickey, Jim, and B.E.N. had clambered onto the half-sunken ship weighted down with loot. There, they encountered a rather unexpected and grotesque sight.

            “Is that…Captain Flint?” Mickey gasped, looking up at the enormous skeleton of the pirate in all his finery sitting atop a makeshift throne.

            “In the flesh!” B.E.N. replied. “Well, sort of.”

            Jim moved closer to examine the posing corpse. An object was clutched tightly in its left hand, and he wanted to know what was so important that Flint wanted to be holding onto it while he died.

            “Y’know, I just…this is all reminding me that there’s…there’s SOMETHING I should be remembering,” B.E.N. ranted. “Something important. But I don’t know what it is! It’s…something…”

            Jim uncurled the skeletal fingers. A metal android component, bronze on one side and with multicolored circuitry decorating the other, rested there. He gently pried it up from the dormant hand.

            “…Dangerous,” B.E.N. continued. “Something dangerous. What could it have been? OH, A MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO LOSE!”

            “Hey, B.E.N.?” Jim got his attention. “I think I just found your mind.”

            He spun B.E.N. around, plugging the part he’d found into the back of B.E.N.’s head, closing the circuits of the sparking wires.

            “WHOA!” Ben twitched once, violently, before settling, blinking, his eyes changing from yellow to blue. “Hello…”

            “Well, B.E.N.?” Mickey questioned. “Remember anything?”

            “Well, actually,” B.E.N. responded, “I was just thinking…” The fact that he was able to truthfully say he’d been thinking elicited a great gasp from him. “IT’S ALL COMING BACK TO ME NOW! OHHHH, THE MEMORIES! EVERYTHING UP UNTIL FLINT RIPPED MY MEMORY CIRCUITS OUT SO I COULD NEVER TELL ANYBODY ABOUT HIS BOOBY TRAP!”

            “BOOBY TRAP?” Jim and Mickey repeated in horror.

            “Oh, yeah,” B.E.N. answered casually. “Flint never wanted anyone but him to be able to find this place, so he rigged it so that the whole planet would blow if someone else got in here.”

            “We gotta warn the others!” Mickey cried. “Before it’s too – “

            A great rumble shook the interior of the core.

            “I think it’s too late,” B.E.N. said shakily. 

            Great chasms opened up in the treasure chamber, revealing a core of flames far below. The core shuddered as the gold and jewels poured into the newly opened inferno, most of Silver’s crew falling in after it with screams of agony. And as the core slowly tore itself apart, Maleficent laughed once more, her cries of joy ringing out over the death and destruction.

            “I know that laugh!” Mickey’s gaze shot to where Maleficent stood over Silver, Sora, Riku, and Belle. “MALEFICENT!” His eyes narrowed, and he felt a white-hot rage burning within him. “I shoulda KNOWN she was behind this!”

            “What’s her deal?” Jim asked.

            “She’s been tryin’ to wreck every world that Sora, Riku, and I have been to, including Belle’s!” Mickey explained. “She was the one who tempted Riku over to the Dark side! I wouldn’t be surprised if she sweet-talked Silver into doing what he did too! Well, you know what? I’m NOT gonna let her hurt ANY MORE OF MY FRIENDS!” Mickey leapt into the air and somersaulted down onto the unstable ground. The cracks were dividing the floor into partitions, and Mickey hopped from one to the next to the next expertly, making a course for Maleficent.

            “B.E.N.,” Jim ordered, “get out of here. Go find the captain, Dr. Doppler, and Mr. Arrow. Help them with the Legacy!”

            “I AM NOT LEAVING MY BUDDY!” B.E.N. asserted loudly.

            Jim gave him a glare that was almost deadly.

            “…Unless he looks at me like that,” B.E.N. replied meekly before turning to make a run for the entry portal to the core.

            “Maleficent, huh?” Jim said under his breath, bringing out his pistol. “I’m not gonna let you hurt any of my friends, either.”

            He jumped down from the boat and followed the path Mickey had marked.

            “In mere minutes,” Maleficent went on, “this entire planet shall be destroyed. However…I would rather leave nothing to chance. After all, there may yet be time for you to escape. I suppose it’s up to me to make sure you haven’t a chance of that.” She turned to Silver. “Silver! This is your last chance. You know the strength of my powers. I can make sure you survive this day. And furthermore, I can salvage the riches of this planet for you. You will have what you always dreamed. All I ask in return…”

            She spun back around to see Mickey and Jim hurtling toward her. She waved her hand outward to Jim; he disappeared, then rematerialized in front of her, levitated in the air and held still by an invisible force.

            “JIM!” Sora, Riku, and Belle cried in horror.

            “Kill them all,” Maleficent commanded Silver. “Prove to me the strength of the Darkness in your heart, and I will restore the dream you dedicated your life to chasing. You won’t have lost half your body in vain. Now do it, Silver!”

            Jim disappeared once more, reappearing before Silver, still held in place by magic. Sora and Riku made to run to him, but there wasn’t enough time; all Silver had to do was draw his blade and run it through Jim’s heart. And the blade spun into place on his mechanical arm, jutting outward, ready for use.

            The years he’d given, searching desperately for Flint’s trove. The costs he’d paid, both to his body and his soul. The throats he’d slit and learned not to grieve for. The pains he’d suffered. The friends and family long left behind. The home he’d abandoned. And on the other side of the balance, the treasure itself. Riches too numerous to even count. It seemed like a simple enough action.

            His eyes met Jim’s. Jim’s eyes, filled with panic instead of the confidence that usually radiated from him. The boy’s utter helplessness. He hadn’t yet been marked by the years and experiences Silver had known. Would he ever be? That was presuming he lived at all. Suddenly, it was clear what Silver’s choice would be. He drew back his arm.

            A strangled cry escaped Jim’s throat.

            Silver turned and plunged the blade at Maleficent’s heart.

            It was deflected against a transparent shield of magic. Maleficent stared coldly at her would-be assassin. Silver then knew she wasn’t at all surprised. Her entreaty to him was just a game to her: to watch him fail, to see him take her bait. “I knew,” she growled, “that you would be WEAK!”

            Just as Mickey reached that platform, the one that still stood intact through all the opening chasms, Maleficent’s entire body erupted into an enormous tower of chartreuse flames. As she poured her energy into her transformation, Jim was dropped. Sora, Riku, and Mickey all recognized this, and it filled them with horror. Silver, Jim, and Belle had never seen this occurrence before, but it frightened them all the same.

            The faery’s physical form blurred and expanded, taking the shape of something else, something three times as tall and several times as long and wide, something jet-black. Four claws dug into the quaking ground. Two great batlike wings erupted from her back. As the flames died down, the head of an enormous, shadow-tinted dragon came through the smoke. That head reared back, drawing in breath.

            “EVERYBODY RUN!” Sora yelled.

            “WHERE?” Jim cried in return; the ground around their platform had now all but completely fallen away, stranding them on an island.

            “BEHIND US!” Riku commanded.

            Silver and Jim ran behind the line formed by Sora, Riku, and Mickey. All three put up a Barrier, hoping it would be enough.

            Maleficent expelled her breath in a jet of green flames, searing heat comparable to a star’s core blasting toward the Keybearers and their friends. What repelled it was not the triple Barrier. Instead, a shield of pure white Light manifested in the air over the six, blocking the fire completely and absorbing it as it hit. Maleficent was astounded; what magic could counter her own this way? When she ran out of breath, she was able to get a good look.

            Belle was standing at the head of the group, arm thrust to the sky, her desire to protect her friends fueling the enormous shield. It was clear she was putting all of her magical energy into keeping it up; she shivered, and sweat rolled down the sides of her face in large droplets. She wouldn’t be able to hold it for much longer; decisions had to be made.

            “You know what we have to do,” Riku told Sora. “Do you want to take the lead, or should I?”

            “Y’know what?” Sora told Riku. “I got to lead last time. It’s your turn.”

            They had done this several times before as part of their training, but now more than ever it seemed meaningful when they reached out and took each other’s hands. Riku pulled Sora close to him, and when the magic they desired resonated, Sora absorbed into Riku’s body, combining to activate a Drive that turned Riku’s clothing jet-black with white accents. While Riku’s own Keyblade stayed in his right hand, Sora’s sparkled into being in his left.

            He could hear Sora’s voice in the back of his mind: “Let’s get ‘em, Riku!”

            Riku raised both Keyblades into the air, crossing them, before bringing them both down with a metallic “cling” and charging at Maleficent at full speed.

            “C’mon, fellas!” Mickey encouraged, waving to Jim and Silver. “Let’s go!” He followed Riku.

            Jim and Silver exchanged a brief glance. “D’ye really…” Silver began.

            “Just don’t betray me this time,” Jim told him coldly. He was still angry at Silver, but it had meant a lot when he’d found Silver unable to kill him, willing to throw his dream away in order to strike at their enemy instead.

            They ran as one just as Belle’s power ran low. She staggered back as Riku, Mickey, Jim, and Silver charged forth.

            Riku’s Dark Splicer was now faster than ever, and he criss-crossed over Maleficent’s entire body, striking at whatever he could reach with both blades. Maleficent spun a 360 to catch him in her line of literal fire, shooting bright flames at him. He put up both blades, creating a double-thick Barrier that reflected the flames away. It was nowhere near as reliable as Belle’s great shield, and both Riku and Sora deep within him could feel the heat from the faery’s fire.

            A sudden pain at the back of Maleficent’s head made her cry out; she twisted her snakelike neck around to see Mickey standing on her shoulders, having just cast a searing Pearl at her. He flung his Keyblade directly at her face; it spun round and round in the air until it was caught in the dragon’s jaws.

            As Riku landed on the ground, he caught sight of Silver taking hold of Jim in his mechanical arm, spinning around to gain momentum before launching Jim into the air; Jim let off a salvo of laser bullets all the way up Maleficent’s neck. This caused her to flinch and drop the Keyblade long enough for Mickey to grasp the handle and deal her a slash to the nose. Then one giant wing slapped Mickey through the air. Maleficent turned her maw upon Jim, drawing breath.

            Riku intercepted Jim in midair, speeding him down to the ground before the flame was unleashed. Silver had now drawn the cannon from his leg, blasting it right at Maleficent’s heart. The first shot caused her to stagger; she held her ground slightly better when the second connected. She’d taken far more damage already than she had planned. Her tail whipped about, slamming into Silver and knocking him away. But Mickey returned as she dispatched the pirate, now fueling ten simultaneous Pearls with his vigor and sending them crashing toward the dragon.

            Black, thorny vines sprouted up from the ground, threatening to strangle all who dared oppose Maleficent. Riku became a whirlwind, both his blade and Sora’s spinning fervently (and Sora’s internal monologue within Riku’s mind informing him that all this spinning was “just as much fun as riding the teacups”) to chop down the vines around them. Belle, having gotten much of her energy back, was able to throw small crescent-shaped sickles of Light by flicking her wrist in a desired direction, leaving many of the vines dormant. Silver and Jim fell in behind Mickey, becoming a three-pronged attack of cannon blasts, laser bullets, and Pearls. Belle tested the limits of her magic even more, and was now able to call up pillars of Light that erupted from the ground, withering the vines and grazing Maleficent’s scales. All of this provided the perfect cover fire for Riku and Sora. Riku leapt onto Maleficent’s tail; she tried to flick him away by whipping it, but he used that momentum to his advantage, flipping onto Maleficent’s back. Together, he and Sora mustered a burst of magic from deep inside, surrounding both Keyblades with Light. When Riku reached Maleficent’s head, he and Sora dealt her a double Ars Arcanum, swinging both blades in an intricate dance around each other.

            Realizing she couldn’t take that much of a beating for that long, Maleficent begrudgingly resigned herself to a retreat until she could grow more power. She had an instinct that her enemies would likely survive the collapse of Treasure Planet, but for now, she would just have to rely on the small chance that they wouldn’t. The dragon shimmered at the edges, then vanished completely in a rush of green fire that faded away to reveal one emerald-colored orb floating in midair.

            “May you burn in the core as fools with fool’s gold,” her voice emanated from the orb. Then a great burst of energy radiated outward from the floating light as a parting shot.

            No sooner had Riku touched the ground, separating from Sora and breaking the Drive, than the shockwave was fired. Riku ducked. Sora didn’t. The wave flew over Mickey’s head, and Belle blocked it with another small shield of Light that absorbed it completely, but Silver and Jim were blasted along with Sora to the edge of a widening chasm.

            Silver plunged his cutlass blade into the ground, stopping his momentum before he could fall to the edge. Jim and Sora both flew off the cliff.

            “NO!” Riku screamed.

            Both boys struggled to find hand- and footholds, and were soon clinging to the side of the chasm as the wall that held them relatively steady shuddered violently. Silver was the first to reach the edge, transforming his hand back into a set of workable fingers and reaching down toward Jim. “Take me hand!” he cried desperately.

            Jim grabbed onto Silver’s hand gratefully, letting the pirate haul him up to solid ground. As soon as Jim was back on terra relatively firma, he insisted, “Sora! We have to save Sora!”

            Silver reached back down, but a great tremor rocked the core, and Sora found himself slipping off the cliff face, down and away, Silver’s horrified face growing ever distant. He fumbled to summon the Keyblade, knowing he could still save himself if he transformed it into a skimmer.

            But he didn’t have to. He landed hard on the back of Riku’s skimmer; the young Master had piloted right beneath him.

            “Need a lift?” Riku asked teasingly.

            “RIKU!” Sora wrapped his arms around Riku’s waist from behind, holding him tight, nuzzling his cheek against Riku’s soft silver hair. “I KNEW I could always count on you!”

            Riku brought the skimmer up to the main level as quickly as he could, and once Belle, Mickey, Jim, and Silver were assured that the two Keybearing boys were all right, the six embarked on a mass exodus, rushing for the portal back outside, hopping over newly growing cracks in the ground and dodging bursts of steam and hot lava that erupted at intervals.

            The Legacy sailed into view just outside the portal. B.E.N. stood at the railing, waving frantically. “ALOHAAAAA JIMMY!” he screamed.

            “Captain Amelia!” Sora cried. “She did it!”

            “LET’S GO!” Mickey encouraged.

            The six made a flying leap out of the portal. The Legacy dipped down far enough for them to all grab ahold of the railing and hoist themselves aboard.

            “We gotta vamoose!” B.E.N. emphasized. “By my calculations, we have only two minutes and thirty seconds to TOTAL PLANETARY DESTRUCTION!”

            “Captain!” Silver bowed when he came in front of the helm, where Arrow, Amelia, and Doppler regarded him with confusion. “Ye dropped out of the heavens just in time to – “

            “Save it for the judge,” Amelia grunted.

            “What’s HE doing aboard?” Arrow asked sternly.

            “He saved Jim!” Sora explained. “And he helped us get rid of somebody even worse! Just trust me!”

            “And trust me!” Mickey added. “I saw it with my own two eyes!”

            “You can trust Mr. Mouse’s account,” Amelia vouched. “I suppose we’re simply resigned to the safe transportation of a mutineer.”

            The Legacy made a fast clip over the surface of the planet, and from outside, it was no better than in the core. The entire planet was cracking and falling apart into a great inferno. Flint had been nothing if not thorough. Debris shot up from the ground, riding great columns of flame. As the Legacy made to turn up and out of the atmosphere, a large chunk of metal slammed into the main sail, utterly destroying it and bringing it down onto one of the onboard engines. A small thruster, about a foot in diameter, rolled across the deck from where it had been dislodged.

            “Blast!” Arrow muttered. “The loss of that sail…this puts our thrusters at only thirty percent capacity!”

            “Thirty percent,” Doppler repeated. “That means…we’ll never clear the planet in time!”

            “WHAT?” Sora practically shrieked. “We’re just gonna EXPLODE?”

            “Not necessarily!” Jim’s eyes flicked from the fallen thruster back to the portal. “We need to turn the ship around!”

            “TURN IT AROUND?” Doppler repeated in disbelief.

            “I get it!” Sora cried. “The portal! We can use the map to pick a different place for it to go! Then we can sail out of here!”

            Jim was already rolling the thruster to a strip of scrap metal that was roughly the size and shape of a surfboard. Silver hustled to stand over him. “What d’ye need, lad?” he asked hurriedly.

            “I just need to attach this…” With Jim’s direction, Silver used a torch stored in his arm to weld the thruster to the board. Once the makeshift solar surfboard was completed, Silver hoisted it up over the railing and Jim balanced himself on it. “Whatever you do,” Jim ordered, “KEEP THE SHIP HEADED FOR THAT PORTAL!” He kicked the thruster into action, careening across the volatile planetary surface.

            “Well, you heard ‘im!” Silver commanded. “GET THIS HEAP OF METAL HEADED BACK TO THE PORTAL!”

            The Legacy made an abrupt about-face, now on a direct course for the triangular doorway that lead to the chaotic core.

            Jim sped through the flames, leaning this way and that to steer his board around flying chunks of metal, dividing his attention between making sure nothing was coming to hit him from the side and keeping an eye on the gleaming portal, making sure he didn’t go off course. This way and that, his course kept him winding over the planet’s surface, and hot winds poured over him, a reminder that he was surrounded by tempestuous death.

            When the thruster sputtered, so did his heart. And when it stopped completely, his heart very nearly did the same. In an instant, Jim was ripped from his flight to a plunging fall, deep down into a chasm with a blaze at its heart. He desperately twisted his feet in midair to jam the thruster against the rock, hoping it would spark and reignite, but no matter what he did, it just didn’t seem to work, and it seemed to him that after everything, his fate was to fail, and because of his own failure, the people he cared about would all perish as well.

            A muscular arm linked with Jim’s left arm; a slightly skinnier one linked with Jim’s right. As the surfboard tumbled dormantly to the conflagration below, Jim looked to either side of him to see Sora and Riku, both aboard their skimmers, holding him aloft.

            “Did you really think we’d let you go alone?” Riku told him.

            In a swing of momentum, Jim was soon settled behind Riku on the skimmer, holding onto his shoulders for security. “Head for that map!” he commanded.

            “TEN SECONDS TO PLANETARY DESTRUCTION!” B.E.N. informed those aboard the Legacy. Amelia and Doppler were working together at the helm, doing their best to steer around every burning obstacle. “NINE!”

            The skimmers outpaced the Legacy, headed for the map.

            “EIGHT!”

            The three boys reached the map in time to notice that it was glowing with a faint golden light. Sora and Riku recognized that light. It had glowed around Roger’s piano in Twilight Barking London, too. “NOW?” Riku wondered out loud.

            “SEVEN!”

            Jim reached into the diagram and touched the icon for Crescentia.

            “SIX!”

            The portal switched views, the luminous port satellite replacing the fiery core.

            “FIVE!”

            The map lifted itself off the ground of its own accord, and Riku pocketed it.

            “FOUR!”

            The skimmers shot through the portal.

            “THREE!”

            The Legacy followed.

            “TWO!”

            Belle held her breath.

            “ONE!”

 

* * *

 

            The triangular portal opened up just outside Crescentia, and riding out of it on the wake of an enormous blast of fire was the Legacy, flanked by the two Keyblade skimmers. The flames abated behind them as they put distance between themselves and the planet. Aboard, Silver burst into a bout of raucous whooping, one that exactly matched the victory cries coming from Sora, Riku, and Jim. The trio then landed on the deck, dismissing the skimmers.

            “I KNEW ye had greatness in ye!” Silver whooped as he and Jim smacked a high-five.

            Doppler and Amelia reached out to tightly embrace each other, momentarily snuggling before realizing how close they’d let themselves get. They backed up only slightly in order to look at each other better. Then, out of the corners of their eyes, they saw Belle giving them a thumbs-up; she had taken quite well to that gesture once Sora had explained to her what it meant.

            “YOU DID IT!” Mickey cried, hopping up and down like a caffeinated grasshopper once Sora, Riku, and Jim were settled on deck. “You all saved the Legacy! And all of us with it!”

            Amelia strode after him. “Unorthodox,” she judged, “but ludicrously effective. Not unlike certain friends I know well.” She gave a nod in Mickey’s direction. “I’ve a mind to recommend you to the Interstellar Academy. They could use a man like you.”

            “REALLY?” Sora replied, as though he was the one who’d been made the offer. “JIM! THAT’S AMAZING!” He put up his hand, and Jim gave him an earnest high-five.

            “Congratulations,” Riku added with a nod and a warm smile. “Looks like you’ve done a lot more right than you thought.”

            “Thanks, guys,” Jim replied, his heart racing despite his cool exterior.

            “Just wait until your mother hears about THIS!” Doppler gushed. “Of course, we may downplay the life-threatening parts.”

            Then, with no warning, B.E.N. cried out “GROUP HUG!” and wrapped his spindly arms around Sora, Riku, and Jim, squishing them together like a sandwich and inciting laughter in all three. They quickly turned it around, struggling out of B.E.N.’s grip in order to tackle him in a triple-power hug of their own.

            Yet through all this, Jim noticed that Silver had disappeared. He had a suspicion of where the pirate might have gone. It was a risk to take, this close to Crescentia, but he had the feeling Silver was going to try anyway. “Uh…I’ll be right back,” he told everyone else. “I…need a minute to take this all in.”

            “Maybe we can help,” Riku suggested.

            “No,” Jim answered, turning back to look at him. “I – “

            He saw it in Riku’s eyes, and noticed when it dawned on Sora. They both knew. “…Actually, I think you can help,” Jim admitted.

            “You boys just do what’s best,” Mickey encouraged. He had a guess of what was going on.

            “What d’you suppose that’s all about?” Amelia wondered out loud as she saw Sora, Riku, and Jim take off for the longboat hangar.

            “I’m not sure,” Belle admitted. “I’ve just learned to trust them.”

            “By the way,” Amelia told Belle, “for someone who claimed to be useless as a Heartless exterminator, you sure did pack a punch!” She swung a fist through the air for effect. “I believe we owe our current position to you almost in entirety. Had you not broken our bonds, we’d likely be roasting on a semi-metaphorical spit at the moment.”

            “It was really all Sora, Riku, and Jim,” Belle argued. “They’d have found a way.” But deep inside, she knew that she had been far more valuable than she had suspected, and it made her feel more than ready to take on whatever adventure came next.

 

* * *

 

            Sora, Riku, and Jim came upon Silver in the hangar, trying to loose the ropes around one of the remaining longboats. He was obviously hoping to make a getaway.

            “You never give up, do you?” Jim accused.

            Silver, startled, turned to face the trio. “Why, I, uh…”

            “You gave up all of Flint’s trove,” Jim stated. “For me.”

            Silver shrugged. “’Twas just a lifetime obsession. I’ll get over it.”

            “You’re really not all that bad after all,” Sora observed.

            “Well,” Silver replied, “‘bad’ ‘as always been a relative term. Not certain I fit in with either yer Light or yer Darkness.”

            Riku nodded. “You could walk the road to dawn if you wanted,” he informed Silver. “A way in between Darkness and Light that leads to hope.”

            “Sounds a little sappy for the likes of me,” Silver admitted. “Don’t s’pose I’ll be given a choice in the matter, though. Seein’ as you’ve all come to make sure I serve me time. It’s just…I’d rather if we didn’t hafta imprison Morph. He’s a free spirit, after all. He wasn’t meant for a cage.”

            Morph trilled solemnly to accentuate the point.

            “Is that so?” Jim asked. He looked to Sora and Riku. “Well? What do you think?”

            “I don’t really think it’s fair to throw someone in jail after they saved our lives from Maleficent,” Sora evaluated.

            “I think we all know what to do,” Riku added.

            Jim pulled a lever, opening the hangar. Sora chopped through the rope holding the longboat in place with his Keyblade.

            “Why, thank ye, lads,” Silver sighed with relief. “Y’know…I realize two of ye’ve probably got places to be, but Jimbo, what say ye we take off, just you an’ me, sailin’ the galaxy?”

            “When I got on this boat, I might’ve taken that offer,” Jim told him. “But now…I think I’m going to chart my own course.”

            Silver hesitated a moment more. “I’ve no doubt ye’ll be somethin’ great,” he told Jim. “There’s nothin’ but a great future off yer bow. But as for these two…” He regarded Sora and Riku with a sly grin. “Maleficent taught me a bit o’ how the worlds work, y’know. You two are in for a rough course.”

            “We know,” Sora told him. “But we’re ready.” He clapped a hand onto Riku’s shoulder. “So long as we’re together, nothing can stop us!”

            “I still say ye’ll need all the help ye can get!” Silver insisted. He then beckoned to his pet. “Say, Morph. I’ve got a bit of a task for ye. I’ve all the faith in the world that Jimbo can take care of himself, but what say ye keep an eye on his two friends an’ make sure they don’t end up in the belly of a Heartless?”

            Morph chirped eagerly, flying over toward Sora and shifting into a small, hard, pink stone: a Summon charm. “Thanks!” Sora replied earnestly, slipping Morph into his pocket alongside Baymax. “I think having a shapeshifter like him around will be pretty useful!”

            “If that be all…” Silver hoisted himself into the boat. “Then I’ll be off.”

            “Just one thing,” Riku insisted.

            Silver looked quizzically at the silver-haired Master.

            “The Darkness will stay with you,” Riku told him, “but it doesn’t own you. It’s never too late to start sailing for dawn. Jim’s going to be charting his own course. Just remember that you’re going to be doing the same.”

            “Such wise words,” Silver commented, “comin’ from such a young lad. I’ll be sure to keep it in mind. Oh! An’ before I forget!” He reached into his pocket, taking out a handful of gold and gems he’d salvaged. “I’ve the feelin’ Jimbo an’ his family could be usin’ this!”

            Jim caught it deftly. “It’s enough to fix up the Inn!” he cried.

            “Good luck to ye!” Silver called out as he lowered the longboat, then blasted off into wide open space, away from Crescentia.

            “You think we’ll ever see him again?” Sora wondered out loud. “I kinda miss him already.”

            “I don’t know,” Riku replied. “It’s up to him now.” He looked to Jim. “You gonna be okay?”

            “Yeah,” Jim replied. “I will. I’ll miss him too. But there’ll always be part of him with me. Reminding me of just what I can be. Speaking of which…all that stuff he said. You two have to leave too, don’t you?”

            “Yeah,” Sora admitted. “But we’ll be back! We promise!”

            “We don’t stay away from friends for very long,” Riku added. He drew the map, which was still glowing, from his pocket. “In fact…this is our way out.”

            “The map?” Jim wondered out loud.

            “You’ll see,” Sora informed him.

 

* * *

 

            Up on deck, Riku let go of the map, and it floated into the air. Sora, Riku, and Mickey raised their Keyblades, pointing them at the map. A beam of light emitted from each, striking the map, and for an instant, the sky flashed: instead of Etherium space, it seemed to be a vista of a million worlds sprinkled out across interspace. As quickly as the sight came, it was gone.

            “What…was…THAT?” Doppler sputtered in awe.

            “A sign that we hafta get goin’,” Mickey explained. “There’s a ton of other people out there who need our help!”

            “I wish you luck,” Amelia told him.

            “I don’t need luck, Amelia!” Mickey bragged. “I’ve got skill!”

            “That’s what you told me ten years ago,” Amelia reminded him. “Did it pan out for you then?”

            “Uhhhhh…let’s not talk about that,” Mickey replied.

            Doppler turned to Belle. “I wish you many more wonderful adventures,” he told her.

            “I finally feel ready to take them on,” Belle responded confidently.

            “Good luck out there,” Jim told Sora and Riku.

            “Good luck out THERE!” Sora gestured back to Crescentia and the planet Montressor behind it.

            He and Riku then turned to look out over the railing at the space from which they’d sailed one last time. “Maleficent won’t give up after this,” Riku reminded Sora.

            “Don’t you remember what I said out on the longboat?” Sora asked him. “We can take on anything, no matter what…so long as we’re together.” He held his hand out to Riku.

            Riku took his hand, intertwining their fingers, leaning in briefly so that they could share a quick kiss. “Together,” Riku agreed.

* * *

 

            Silver was almost ready to wash his hands of the Flint incident once and for all. A new life awaited him among the stars, and what that life contained, he couldn’t tell. But first, there was a loose end to tie up. His contract with Maleficent was null and void.

            However, Maleficent had not been his only contractor.

            The other had asked of Silver a much simpler assignment. There was a single item rumored to have been bagged by Nathaniel Flint: an item that Silver would have been able to recognize on sight by its glimmer and its aura. It would look and feel like no other gem. When Silver had landed in the core, he’d been drawn right to the spot where it lay, taking the green gem to pocket it immediately. In his pocket, it had survived the blast from Flint’s booby trap, and Silver clenched his organic fingers over it as he steered the longboat to the prearranged meeting place: a desert asteroid floating far out in the reaches of the Etherium, beyond the provinces of law.

            There, the tall man was waiting. As Silver’s boat landed, his employer remarked, “And here I was thinking you wouldn’t be able to put in an appearance after all.”

            “An’ what do ye take me for?” Silver asked cheekily. “I not only survived the collapse of an entire planet; I brought ye exactly what ye wanted!” He held up the sparkling green stone. “But first…”

            “Your payment,” his employer filled in. He produced a leather pouch filled with gold: currency from another world entirely, fit for use by gods. While it amounted to more than what Silver could have stuffed in his pockets, it was only a pittance compared to the loot of a thousand planets. The leather pouch and the green stone traded hands.

            “I hope ye’ll be wantin’ nothin’ more of me,” Silver stated.

            “Quite bold, to give such a demand to the likes of me,” his employer remarked. “Count yourself lucky that today, I’m feeling generous. I’ve got what I want. Now go where you want. I don’t care. If I require your services again…I will contact you then.”

            “Might I ask what about that stone is so special to ye, anyway?” Silver inquired.

            “No,” his employer replied. “You may not.” He adopted a sly grin. “Though you’ll soon find out, along with everyone else.”

            Silver didn’t like where the conversation was going. He was already beginning to regret having carried that jewel here. He couldn’t fathom what about it made it so important, and yet he had a sinking feeling that he’d just put it into exactly the wrong hands. However, he knew that trying to get it back would be a death sentence, and now that there were people he actually cared about besides himself, it might very well seal their warrants as well. Without a word, he got back into the longboat and sped off, charting a course for the great wide galaxy and the adventures within it, putting all thought of what he’d just done behind him.

            Left alone on the asteroid, Loki grinned proudly as he closed his fingers over the Soul Gem. His work was just beginning.

 

THE END


End file.
